THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 


I 

UT; 


Copyright  by  Hams  If  Swing 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  SMILE 


WASHINGTON  CLO5L-UPS 

INTIMATE  VIEWS  OF 
SOME  PUBLIC  FIGURES 

BY 

EDWARD  G.  LOWRY 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

Cbc  ClibcrsiDr  pre«  Cambritoge 
1921 


COPYRIGHT,   I9ZI,   BY  THE  REPUBLIC   PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  INC. 

COPYRIGHT,    1921,   BY   EDWARD   G.    LOWRY 

ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 


TO 
S.  E.  L. 

AND 

E.  L.  L. 


111 PS£0 

JLLJLUQwvl 


NOTE 

SOME  of  the  chapters  in  this  book  have  appeared,  in 
part,  in  substance,  or  in  whole,  in  The  New  Republic, 
Collier's  Weekly,  and  The  Weekly  Review.  Grateful 
acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  editors  of  these 
journals  for  permission  to  reprint  here  such  of  the 
material  as  has  been  published  in  their  columns. 

E.  G.  L. 

SEVEN  GATES  FARM 
MARTHA'S  VINEYARD 


CONTENTS 

THE  WASHINGTON  SCENE  3 

HARDING:  THE  GREAT  EMOLLIENT  II 

COOLIDGE  :  FOSTER-CHILD  OF  SILENCE  23 

BRYAN:  GAYLY  THE  TROUBADOUR  34 

JOHNSON:  A  HERALD  WITH  TRUMPET  49 

LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  6 1 

AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT  73 

HAYS:  A  HUMAN  FLIVVER  ,83 

WOOD:  OUR  LONE  PRO-CONSUL  92 

THE  GREAT  HITCHCOCK  ENIGMA  101 

NORRIS  :  A  NATIVE  PRODUCT  109 

WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB  120 

FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY  133 

REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE  144 

MELLON:  A  CERTAIN  RICH  MAN  152 
McCoRMiCK:  THE  YOUNG  VITAMINE                         '    161 

HUGHES:  A  MAN  OF  SUBSTANCE  168 

LODGE:  THE  VERY  BEST  BUTTER  180 

WHY  NOT  KNOX?  191 

HOOVER:  THE  FRIEND  OF  ALL  CHILDREN  203 

UNDERWOOD:  HE  SUPPLIES  BALM  TO  GILEAD  214 

BORAH:  THE  HEART  BOWED  DOWN  224 

LA  FOLLETTE:  BOB  THE  BATTLER  233 

LEWIS  :  LILAC  AND  LILACS  243 

SIMS  :  A  FIRST-CLASS  SAILOR  MAN  244 

PERSHING:  BEAU  SABREUR,  1921  MODEL  254 

TAFT:  IN  PORT  AT  LAST  264 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  SMILE  Frontispiece 
THE  PRESIDENT  AT  WORK  AND  AT  PLAY  12 
GOVERNOR  AND  MRS.  COOLIDGE  24 
WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN  34 
SENATOR  HIRAM  W.  JOHNSON  50 
SECRETARY  HUGHES  AND  POSTMASTER-GENERAL  HAYS  84 
SECRETARY  WEEKS  AND  GENERAL  WOOD  92 
SENATOR  GEORGE  W.  NORRIS  1 10 
GEORGE  B.  CHRISTIAN,  JR.,  SECRETARY  TO  THE  PRESI- 
DENT 1 20 
ANDREW  W.  MELLON,  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY  152 
SENATOR  MEDILL  MCCORMICK  162 
SENATOR  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE  180 
SENATOR  P.  C.  KNOX  192 
HERBERT  HOOVER  204 
SENATOR  OSCAR  W.  UNDERWOOD  214 
SENATOR  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH  224 
SENATOR  ROBERT  M.  LA  FOLLETTE  234 
REAR-ADMIRAL  WILLIAM  S.  SIMS  244 
WHAT  THE  WORLD  WAR  DID  FOR  GENERAL  PERSHING  254 
THE  CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  264 


WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 


WASHINGTON   CLOSE-UPS 


THE  WASHINGTON  SCENE 

upon  aeons  agone,  when  the  bat-winged  ptero- 
dactyl swooped  down  relentlessly  upon  its  prey,  —  I 
mean  to  say  a  long  time  ago,  —  this  humid  cup  in  the 
hills  that  is  now  the  Washington  scene  may  have  been 
different;  it  must  have  been.  With  that  we  have  no 
present  concern. 

But  Washington  itself;  the  Washington  of  the  or- 
ganic act,  of  the  Adamses,  John  and  Quincy,  of  Martin 
Van  Buren,  Millard  Fillmore,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes, 
Benjamin  Harrison,  William  H.  Taft,  and  Woodrow 
Wilson,  is  the  Washington  of  Warren  G.  Harding. 
Regard  the  eternal  changelessness  of  the  two  stone 
legs  of  King  Ozymandias  in  the  desert  of  Egypt  and 
attune  your  mind  to  the  tale  I  have  to  tell. 

Come  with  me  into  Mr.  Harding's  front  yard  and 
let  us  sit  under  a  flowering  magnolia  and  leisurely,  as 
becomes  the  pure  in  heart  and  detached  in  mind,  talk 
about  the  familiar  apparitions  who  inhabit  these 
pleasant  walks  and  tinker  with  our  destiny. 

It  passes  belief  how  little  is  known  about  Washing- 
ton by  the  country  at  large,  and  yet  no  city  is  more 


4  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

written  about.  Still,  it  is  hardly  ever  justly  appraised 
by  the  people  at  home.  They  seem  to  see  it  through 
a  refracting  and  magnifying  haze.  New  York  and 
Chicago  and  San  Francisco  and  St.  Louis  and  New 
Orleans  they  know  and  can  justly  estimate.  They  are 
visualized  clearly,  but  it  is  curiously  true  that  almost 
every  newcomer  to  Washington  and  every  visitor 
suffers  a  sort  of  stage  fright. 

O.  Henry  in  one  of  his  stories  tells  about  a  cowboy 
going  to  New  York  and  being  diffident  before  New 
Yorkers,  until  he  discovered  they  were  people  "just 
like  Grover  Cleveland  and  Geronimo  and  the  Watson 
boys."  No  citizen  of  Danville,  Illinois,  or  Pike  County, 
Missouri,  or  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  would  make 
any  average  American  tongue-tied  or  step  on  his  feet 
with  embarrassment.  Yet  those  three  places  have 
furnished  the  last  three  Speakers  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  is  a 
great  personage  in  Washington.  Tourists  to  the  Capi- 
tol peer  into  his  room  with  awe,  and  nudge  one  another 
furtively  and  say  "That's  him,"  when  they  pass  him 
by  happy  chance  in  a  corridor.  Then  they  go  home  and 
talk  about  it  for  days  and  days. 

I  do  not  know  why  it  is  that  individually  the  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  and  Cabinet  members  are 
always  so  awe-inspiring  to  their  fellow  countrymen, 
while  collectively  it  has  always  been  the  fashion  to 
disparage  them.  The  late  Henry  Adams  was  the  very 
greatest  of  Washington  correspondents,  though  I 


THE  WASHINGTON  SCENfi  5 

should  have  been  afraid  so  to  describe  him  in  his  pres- 
ence. He  spent  a  lifetime,  from  Lincoln's  administra- 
tion through  Roosevelt's,  looking  at  the  Washington 
scene  with  clear  eyes  and  interpreting  the  marionettes 
with  the  coolest,  most  detached  mind  that  has  ever 
been  brought  to  that  occupation.  When  I  used  to  talk 
with  him  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life  I  found  to  my 
dismay  that  all  of  my  slowly  acquired  discoveries  he 
had  known  since  the  sixties,  and  some  of  them  were 
known  to  his  grandfather  before  him.  Some  of  his 
impressions  gathered  between  1840  and  1869  might 
have  been  written  to-day  looking  at  the  present  as- 
semblage here. 

It  is  as  true  now  as  it  was  in  President  Taylor's  ad- 
ministration that  Senators  are  a  distinct  species,  and 
that  continuous  service  in  Congress  produces  —  a 
Congressman.  They  have  their  own  easily  discernible 
vocational  stigmata.  They  are  a  distinct  sort  of  human 
being  and  as  easily  distinguishable,  once  you  know 
them,  as  a  raw  oyster  from  a  cup  of  tea.  The  type  re- 
produces with  astonishing  fidelity,  despite  the  greatest 
moral,  social,  and  political  convulsions. 

Our  system  is  so  arranged  that  Congressmen  must 
necessarily  spend  two  thirds  of  their  time  making  ar- 
rangements to  endeavor  to  ensure  their  reelection.  I 
do  not  make  any  outcry  against  the  system,  but  it  is  a 
thing  to  be  pointed  out.  Six  thousand  night  telegrams 
properly  distributed  will  agitate  Congress  like  a  strong 
wind  blowing  over  wheat,  so  sensitive  is  it  to  the  possi-* 


6  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

ble  political  effect  of  anything  it  may  do  or  leave  un- 
done. 

I  remember  that  President  Wilson,  who  never  got 
on  with  Washington  easily,  never  fitted  into  the  scene, 
and,  to  me,  always  seemed  rather  afraid  of  its  allure 
and  subtle  charm,  once  said:  "The  city  of  Washington 
is  in  some  respects  self-contained,  and  it  is  easy  there 
to  forget  what  the  rest  of  the  United  States  is  thinking 
about.  I  count  it  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  almost 
all  the  windows  of  the  White  House  and  its  offices  open 
upon  unoccupied  spaces  that  stretch  to  the  banks  of 
the  Potomac  and  then  out  into  Virginia  and  on  to  the 
heavens  themselves,  and  that  as  I  sit  there  I  can  con- 
stantly forget  Washington  and  remember  the  United 
States.  Not  that  I  would  intimate  that  all  of  the 
United  States  lies  south  of  Washington,  but  there  is  a 
serious  thing  back  of  my  thought.  If  you  think  too 
much  about  being  reflected,  it  is  very  difficult  to  be 
worth  reflecting.  You  are  so  apt  to  forget  that  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  persons,  numerous  as 
they  seem  to  be  when  they  swarm,  who  come  to 
Washington  to  ask  for  things,  do  not  constitute  an 
important  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  country, 
that  it  is  constantly  necessary  to  come  away  from 
Washington  and  renew  one's  contacts  with  the  people 
who  do  not  swarm  there,  who  do  not  ask  for  anything, 
but  who  do  trust  you  without  their  personal  counsel  to 
do  your  duty.  Unless  a  man  gets  these  contacts  he 
grows  weaker  and  weaker.  He  needs  them  as  Hercules 


THE  WASHINGTON  SCENE  7 

needed  the  touch  of  mother  earth.  If  you  lifted  him  up 
too  high  or  he  lifts  himself  too  high,  he  loses  the  con- 
tact and  therefore  loses  the  inspiration." 

Washington  cries  aloud  to  be  written  about  in  an 
intimate,  amusing  way.  It  is  somehow  different  from 
other  social  settlements  on  the  broad  expanse  of  our 
continent.  The  town  has  a  distinctive  social  life  of  its 
own  with  a  flavor  and  quality  slightly  tinctured  with 
the  modes  and  manners  of  "abroad."  It  has,  too,  a 
seductive  charm  and  glamour  all  its  own.  The  oddity 
and  part  of  the  charm  of  the  Washington  condition  is 
just  this,  that  while  it  has  the  social  framework  of  a 
world  capital  the  chief  official  personages  who  people 
the  scene  are  villagers  with  a  villager's  outlook  and  a 
villager's  background.  This  makes  for  unexpected  el- 
lipses and  provides  conversation.  Henry  James  called 
Washington  the  "City  of  Conversation  " : "  Washington 
talks  about  herself,  and  about  almost  nothing  else: 
falling  superficially,  indeed,  on  that  ground,  but  into 
line  with  the  other  Capitals. ..  .It  is  in  positive  quest 
of  an  identity  of  some  sort,  much  rather  —  an  iden- 
tity other  than  merely  functional  and  technical  —  that 
Washington  goes  forth,  encumbered  with  no  ideal  of 
avoidance  or  escape :  it  is  about  herself  as  the  City  of 
Conversation  precisely  that  she  incessantly  converses; 
adorning  the  topic,  moreover,  with  endless  ingenuity 
and  humor.  But  that,  absolutely,  remains  the  case; 
which  thus  becomes  one  of  the  most  thorough,  even  if 
probably  pne  of  the  most  natural  and  pf  the  happiest, 


8  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

cases  of  collective  self-consciousness  that  one  knows." 
I  couldn't  refrain  from  quoting  that  bit  of  rich  and 
experienced  condensation  and  observation  because  it 
is  precisely  the  whole  story.  People  take  such  dread- 
ful risks  when  they  venture  to  approach  or  touch  a 
subject  that  a  master  has  laid  a  benevolent  and  pass- 
ing hand  upon,  even  if  ever  so  lightly  and  in  passing. 
Henry  James  stopped  with  Henry  Adams  when  he  was 
last  in  Washington.  These  two  are  the  only  men  who 
have  ever  written  about  this  national  capital  with  a 
sureness  and  skill  that  illumined  and  interpreted  their 
subject.  Many  others  have  been  conscious,  but,  as  it 
proved,  vaguely  and  dimly,  of  the  scene  they  have 
sought  to  portray. 

It  all  comes  down  to  this:  Washington  is  a  curious 
and  delightful  place ;  it  is  so  full  of  the  most  refreshing 
and  striking  contrasts.  The  capital  of  a  country  of  a 
hundred  million,  and  the  center  of  statesmanship, 
diplomacy,  and  high  politics,  its  citizens  write  hot  and 
hasty  letters  to  the  powers  that  be,  protesting  that 
hawks  devour  their  Pekin  ducks,  and  that  rabbits 
come  after  their  corn.  They  argue  gravely  the  con- 
stitutionality of  their  right  of  defense  against  these 
depredations. 

Washington  is  the  most  feminine  of  all  cities.  It  has 
grace  and  loveliness  and  many  wanton  wiles,  and, 
above  all,  that  elusive  quality  and  attribute  that  for 
want  of  a  better  name  we  call  charm.  Its  seductive- 
ness and  glamour  have  drawn  many  a  good,  homespun 


THE  WASHINGTON  SCENE  9 

citizen  away  from  the  hay,  grain,  and  feed  business, 
where  he  belonged,  into  the  political  morass  of  office- 
holders. It  has  the  same  effect  on  small- town  people 
that  Cleopatra  had  on  Anthony;  it  makes  them  forget 
their  homefolks  and  have  dreams  which  do  not  come 
true 

Politicians  are  great  men  in  Washington  and  get 
their  names  in  the  newspapers,  and  hold  their  jobs  just 
so  long  as  they  remember  their  home  towns.  When 
they  forget  their  origins ;  when  they  begin  to  think  of 
themselves  as  being  "big  men"  in  and  of  themselves 
rather  than  as  delegated  spokesmen  for  their  constit- 
uencies, they  wither  and  die.  I  often  think  of  Wash- 
ington as  being  like  a  flower  show.  Nothing  grows 
here,  but  every  community  sends  what  it  deems  at  the 
moment  to  be  its  choicest  product.  So  long  as  these 
budding,  flowering  plants  remember  that  their  tap- 
root is  in  Augusta,  Maine;  or  Terre  Haute;  or  Red 
Oak,  Iowa;  or  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  and  must  be 
watered  and  nourished  there,  they  thrive;  but  when 
they  forget  it,  they  become  just  cut  flowers  and  their 
end  is  at  hand. 

So  in  this  scene  life  proceeds  from  one  crisis  to 
another.  But  do  not  despair  of  the  Republic.  The 
only  thing  one  can  be  sure  about  in  a  crisis  or  situa- 
tion or  condition  at  Washington  is  that  it  is  not  un- 
precedented ;  it  has  happened  before.  Washington  can- 
not be  seen  intelligently  or  to  any  effect  without  a 
background.  It  produces  crises  and  periods  of  welter 


io  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

and  confusion  in  such  regularly  recurring  cycles  as  to 
be  almost  susceptible  to  the  formulation  of  a  law  of 
natural  phenomena.  Certainly  the  sons  and  descend- 
ants of  Jeremiah  have  rended  their  garments,  beat 
their  breasts,  and  made  loud  lamentation  before  the 
Capitol  and  the  White  House  after  each  of  our  war 
periods.  They  sat  about  in  bewilderment  as  they  sit 
now,  and  will  again,  saying  to  one  another,  "Was 
there  ever  such  an  extraordinary  situation?  Was  there 
ever  such  another  mess  as  we  find  ourselves  in  now? 
Was  there  ever  such  another  set  of  dolts,  knaves,  and 
incompetents  in  command  of  our  destinies?"  The 
answer  is:  There  was.  This  is  not  the  first  time  that 
the  wind  has  moaned  through  the  rigging. 

What  Washington  is  at  any  period  it  has  been  and 
fearfully  will  be  again.  It  stumbles,  but  it  never  falls. 
Against  this  background  and  in  this  scene,  I  ask,  by 
your  leave,  to  exhibit  some  of  the  apparitions  and 
figures  I  have  encountered.  They  are  a  diverse  lot  and 
all  of  them  have  interested  me,  as  I  hope  they  will 
interest  you. 


HARDING:  THE  GREAT  EMOLLIENT 

POLITICALLY  Mr.  Harding  belongs  to  the  same  age, 
era,  epoch,  or  period  as  the  wooden  Indians  who  used 
to  stand  so  massively,  so  passively,  and  so  innocu- 
ously in  front  of  cigar  shops.  He  is  as  old-fashioned  as 
that.  A  flower  of  the  period  before  safety  razors,  when 
all  the  barber  shops  had  shelves  for  their  customers' 
gilt-lettered  private  shaving-mugs,  and  the  Police 
Gazette  passed  from  hand  to  hand  on  Sunday  mornings 
while  the  hay,  grain,  and  feed  man  and  the  elderly 
harness-maker  took  a  fearful  joy  in  gazing  at  Pauline 
Hall's  delectable  and  columnar  legs.  Then  to  church 
before  a  fried-chicken  dinner,  a  nap,  and  a  walk  with 
the  children  in  the  afternoon. 

Pastoral  days,  peaceful  days,  idyllic  days,  but,  now, 
alas!  gone  where  the  woodbine  twineth,  as  the  poet 
said.  No  flivvers;  no  collective  bargaining;  no  high 
cost  of  living;  no  small  and  oppressed  nationalities; 
the  railroad  problem  was  how  to  get  a  pass;  no  "in- 
dustrial unrest";  no  Reds;  no  grisly  specters  of 
Soviets;  no  coal  shortage;  no  mandates  or  Article  X; 
hired  men  worked  all  day  every  day,  and  on  Sundays 
put  on  a  hat  with  a  red  lining  specially  designed  for 
the  country  trade  and  went  buggy- riding;  no  mass 
urgings  and  surgings  toward  God  knows  what  goal. 

Such  were  the  palmy  days  in  which  were  formed  the 


12  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

character,  habits,  and  political  philosophy  of  Warren 
Gamaliel  Harding.  He  has  not  changed  with  the  times. 

The  President  can  "keynote."  I  have  heard  him. 
"Keynoting"  implies  the  ability  to  make  melodic 
noises  and  give  the  impression  of  passionately  and 
torrentially  moving  onward  and  upward  while  warily 
standing  still.  Temperament  under  perfect  control 
does  the  trick.  It  has  its  attendant  dangers  some- 
times. Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  young  fellow 
tried  it  with  a  girl  down  in  Georgia.  She  was  a  nice, 
sensible,  common-sense  sort  of  girl,  and  she  liked  the 
boy.  He  used  to  come  over  to  her  house  nearly  every 
night  and  they  would  sit  on  the  porch  behind  the 
honeysuckle  and  morning-glory  vines.  The  boy  could 
talk,  and  nearly  every  night  he  would  play  her  a  piece 
on  his  bazoo.  She  liked  it,  too;  but,  when  she  would 
go  upstairs  to  bed  and,  while  she  was  combing  her 
hair,  add  up  what  he  had  said,  she  couldn't  remember 
anything  that  would  warrant  her  in  beginning  to  pick 
out  her  bridesmaids.  Nothing  was  happening  and 
time  was  getting  along.  One  night,  under  the  influence 
of  a  soft  moon  and  a  mocking-bird,  the  boy  began  to 
silver  tongue.  She  stood  it  just  as  long  as  she  could, 
and  then  she  called  for  a  showdown.  She  put  her  hand 
on  his  arm.  "Claude,"  she  said  softly,  "if  that's  a 
proposal,  I'm  your  huckleberry;  but  if  it's  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  scenery,  look  out  for  the  dog." 

I  think  Mr.  Harding  ought  to  know  that  story; 
that's  why  I  tell  it.  The  present  temper  and  mood  of 


THE   PRESIDENT   AT  WORK   AND  AT  PLAY 


HARDING  13 

most  folks  these  days  seems  to  be  to  get  down  to  cases 
and  find  out  what  ails  us. 

It  was  privily  urged  upon  one  of  the  functionaries  of 
Mr.  Wilson's  entourage  a  little  while  before  that  ad- 
ministration came  to  an  end  that  it  would  be  a  shrewd 
and  clever  thing  to  do,  a  good  "publicity  stunt,"  to 
throw  open  the  gates  of  the  White  House  and  make 
the  grounds  and  the  accessible  state  rooms  of  the 
presidential  edifice  free  again  to  the  public.  The  sug- 
gestion was  denied  admittance.  Had  it  been  heeded, 
Mr.  Harding  would  have  been  deprived  of  what 
proved  to  be  a  most  effective  gesture  as  he  began  his 
term  of  residence  at  Number  1600  Pennsylvania 
Avenue. 

It  beats  all  what  a  change  has  come  over  the  spirit 
and  manners  and  disposition  of  this  town  since  Mr. 
Harding  came  in.  I  don't  know  how  long  it  will  last. 
It  is  too  idyllic  to  last  forever.  Partly  this  new  mani- 
festation of  peace  on  earth  good-will  to  men  is  due  to 
opening  the  White  House  gates,  but  mostly  it  is  due 
to  Mr.  Harding  himself.  He  has  undeniably  made  a 
good  start.  He  made  an  immensely  favorable  first 
impression.  He  got  started  off  on  the  right  foot.  He 
quickly  won  for  himself  a  great  body  of  local  favorable 
public  opinion.  That  was  so  startling  and  vivid  a  con- 
trast to  the  condition  that  had  prevailed  here  for  some 
time  that  it  assumed,  temporarily  at  least,  an  appear- 
ance of  tremendous  significance  and  importance. 

In  the  local  area  now  under  observation,  at  any 


I4  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

rate,  the  normalcy,  so  long  ago  set  forth  as  one  of  the 
chief  ends  to  be  attained,  has  been  achieved. 

For  a  long  time  the  social-political  atmosphere  of 
Washington  had  been  one  of  bleak  and  chill  austerity 
suffused  and  envenomed  by  hatred  of  a  sick  chief 
magistrate  that  seemed  to  poison  and  blight  every 
ordinary  human  relationship  and  finally  brought  to  a 
virtual  stoppage  every  routine  function  of  the  Govern- 
ment. It  was  a  general  condition  of  stagnation  and 
aridity  that  had  come  to  affect  everybody  here.  The 
White  House  was  isolated.  It  had  no  relation  with  the 
Capitol  or  the  local  resident  and  official  community. 
Its  great  iron  gates  were  closed  and  chained  and 
locked.  Policemen  guarded  its  approaches.  It  was  in  a 
void  apart.  Almost  from  the  beginning  it  had  seemed 
to  the  sensitive  local  intelligence  to  exhale  a  chill  and 
icy  disdain  for  the  chief  subordinate  figures  and  per- 
sonages who  under  the  President  comprise  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  Washington  community.  This  may  have 
been  imagination,  but  it  had  the  full  effect  of  a  reality. 
It  all  made  for  bleakness  and  bitterness  and  a  genera] 
sense  of  frustration  and  unhappiness. 

Now  the  chief  thing  to  report  at  this  early  period  of 
the  new  dispensation  is  that  this  miasmatic  vapor  has 
been  dissipated  overnight.  The  Washington  atmos- 
phere to-day  is  that  of  Old  Home  Week  or  a  college 
class  reunion.  The  change  is  amazing.  The  populace 
is  on  a  broad  grin  —  old  familiar  figures  have  reap- 
peared out  of  an  eight-year  seclusion.  Countenances 


HARDING  15 

that  one  feared  had  lost  the  art  or  knack  of  beaming 
now  radiate  warmth  and  light  and  good  cheer.  Dis- 
tinctly the  sunny  side  is  up.  Indeed,  I  venture  to  sus- 
pect that  not  since  the  halcyon  days  when  Sandford 
and  Merton  sat  in  the  garden  with  the  ineffable  Mr. 
Barlow,  and  discoursed  together  on  the  joys  and  re- 
wards of  a  virtuous  life,  has  there  been  so  much  of 
sweetness  and  harmony  and  light  susceptible  to  local 
observation  and  sympathetic  record.  It  is  just  sweet, 
as  Grizel  used  to  put  it  to  Tommy  the  while  her  eyes 
were  little  wells  of  gladness. 

It  must  have  been  like  this  aforetime  when  the  morn- 
ing stars  sang  together  and  the  little  hills  skipped  for  joy. 
For  there  is  no  remembrance  with  us  of  former  days. 

It  is  now  possible  for  any  decent  citizen  of  the  Re- 
public, becomingly  appareled,  to  enter  the  east  portico 
or  extension  of  the  White  House  and  proceed  along  the 
corridor  or  passage,  where  were  displayed  the  fish- 
plates, sauce-boats,  and  other  ceramic  remains  of  the 
Millard  Fillmore  and  Franklin  Pierce  administrations, 
and  so  on  up  the  broad  stairs  that  lead  to  the  historic 
East  Room,  where  once  the  White  House  washing 
hung  and  which  more  recently  has  been  given  over  to 
private  moving-picture  shows  for  the  diversion  of  an 
ill  President.  From  here  it  is  but  a  step  to  ascend  or 
descend  the  chromatic  scale  of  the  presidential  parlors 
—  Red,  Blue,  Green.  This  historic  little  journey  over 
ground  long  an  inviolate  sanctuary  has  been  taken  by 
thousands  since  the  inaugural. 


16  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

In  the  very  first  flush  of  the  new  freedom,  eager, 
ardent  visitors  stood  in  a  compact  mass  under  the 
north  portico  or  main  entrance  and  stared  their  fill  at 
all  who  came  and  went  from  the  White  House.  Some 
of  the  bolder  ventured  up  the  steps  and  did  a 
collective  Little-Mabel-with-her-face-against-the-pane 
through  the  front  windows.  I  do  not  cite  this  as  a 
model  of  good  manners  or  as  a  practice  that  should  be 
encouraged,  but  it  gave  thousands  pleasure,  it  satis- 
fied an  eager  curiosity  and  craving  for  an  actual  con- 
tact with  and  sight  of  the  occupants  of  the  White 
House,  and  it  proved  to  be  as  tactful  and  effective  a 
gesture  as  could  have  been  devised  to  indicate  that  a 
page  had  been  turned  in  our  political  history. 

The  news  has  gone  all  over  the  country  that  the 
White  House  is  open  again,  and  it  has  been  given  an 
interpretation  and  significance  far  beyond  its  value. 
I  report  it  here  as  one  of  the  things  that  helped  Mr. 
Harding  most  in  the  opening  days  of  his  administra- 
tion and  gave  him  a  decided  impetus  along  the  high- 
way of  public  favor.  It  has  given  him  a  stock  of  good 
opinion  which  he  will  have  need  to  draw  upon,  unless 
I  miss  my  guess. 

But  it  is  in  the  White  House  offices,  where  Mr. 
Harding  spends  his  days,  that  the  questing  analyst 
finds  in  greatest  profusion  and  richness  the  signs  and 
indications  of  the  new  order.  These  rooms  and  car- 
peted passages,  lately  so  deserted  and  forlorn,  are  now 
packed  and  running  over.  All  of  the  people  you  used 


HARDING  i? 

to  read  about  in  the  newspapers  twelve  years  ago, 
when  Mr.  Taft  became  President,  are  there;  and  a  lot 
of  new  ones  that  you  never  heard  of,  but  will  if  they 
have  any  luck.  Just  at  the  moment  these  patriots  and 
fellow  countrymen,  now  rescued  from  their  long 
hibernation,  want  jobs  or  have  friends  who  want  jobs. 
Some  few  of  them,  however,  just  want  to  "pay  their 
respects,"  revisit  an  old  familiar  scene  and  perhaps 
meet  a  kindly  correspondent  who  will  put  a  little 
piece  in  the  papers  about  them.  It  is  these  recurring 
figures,  long  absent  from  this  environment  and  now  so 
unaffectedly  glad  to  be  back  and  on  terms  with  the 
White  House,  who  give  the  atmosphere  of  Old  Home 
Week  to  these  pleasant  walks  and  meetings. 

My  first  contact  with  Mr.  Harding  himself  was  as 
fleeting  and  casual  as  the  kiss  of  two  billiard  balls,  and 
yet  I  brought  away  with  me  three  bright  and  vivid,  if 
vagrant  and  irrelevant,  impressions.  The  first  is  that 
like  all  Ohio  statesmen  he  wears  trousers  that  are  too 
long.  I  don't  know  why  this  should  be  so,  but  it  is.  I 
think  the  feeling  against  "high- water  pants"  as  indi- 
cating a  countryman  or  "hick"  must  have  been 
peculiarly  virulent  in  Ohio  thirty  or  forty  years  ago, 
for  all  her  present  generation  of  public  men  like  their 
trousers  to  hang  in  folds  about  their  ankles. 

This,  at  any  rate,  was  the  explanation  given  me  by 
one  of  the  State's  Congressmen  years  ago  when  we 
discussed  this  esoteric  topic.  I  hadn't  thought  of  this 
for  a  long  time  until  I  noticed  that  Mr.  Harding  rigidly 


i8  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

conforms  to  the  convention.  Subsequent  contacts  de- 
veloped that  some  one  had  been  at  him  and  shortened 
his  suspenders.  It  makes  all  the  difference. 

The  second  impression  I  brought  away  is  that  the 
President  has,  at  least,  two  pet  words  that  he  uses 
constantly.  They  are  "becoming"  and  "seemly."  I 
think  it  will  be  observed  of  him,  as  he  becomes  a  more 
intimate  and  accustomed  apparition  to  all  of  us,  that 
he  cannot  talk  very  long  on  any  subject  without  using 
one  of  these  two  words  and,  perhaps,  both  of  them.  I 
present  this  facet  to  the  Freudians.  Let  them  make 
what  they  can  of  it. 

The  third  impression  that  I  have  to  set  down  was 
the  first  and  the  strongest  Mr.  Harding  makes  upon 
every  one.  I  mean  the  essential  kindliness  and  kind- 
ness that  fairly  radiate  from  him.  He  positively  gives 
out  even  to  the  least  sensitive  a  sense  of  brotherhood 
and  innate  good-will  toward  his  fellow  man.  With  it 
he  imparts  a  certain  sense  of  simpleness  and  trustful- 
ness, an  easy  friendliness,  an  acceptance  of  people  he 
meets  as  good  fellows.  It  is  in  his  eyes,  in  his  voice,  in 
his  manners.  I'll  wager  that  saying  "no"  is  one  of  the 
most  difficult  things  he  does.  Abou  Ben  Adhem,  I 
believe,  would  have  taken  to  him  like  a  shot. 

This  outstanding  trait  of  easy  good-fellowship  and 
good-will  was  exhibited  to  unusual  advantage  in  his 
first  meeting  with  the  Washington  correspondents. 
It  had  been  arranged  for  Mr.  Harding  to  receive  the 
writing  men  at  twelve-thirty  o'clock  on  the  day  of  the 


HARDING  19 

first  cabinet  meeting,  and  after  that  session  had  ended, 
but  it  was  one-thirty  before  the  correspondents  were 
invited  into  the  circular  presidential  office.  At  that 
time  Mr.  Harding  made  himself  easier  of  access  than 
any  good  dentist,  for,  at  least,  with  a  dentist  in  fair 
practice  one  has  to  make  an  appointment  a  week  in 
advance,  but,  in  the  beginning,  the  President  allowed 
some  Senators  and  such-like  important  persons  to 
"run  in"  on  him.  This  easy,  friendly  practice,  which 
Mr.  Taft  also  had  in  his  first  days,  threw  his  whole 
schedule  of  appointments  out  of  gear,  and  caused  him 
to  run  behind  the  time-table  the  competent  White 
House  staff  arranged  for  him.  Mr.  Harding  will  have 
to  guard  his  time,  as  he  will  soon  learn.  He  is  the  most 
besought  person,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  world,  and  his 
hours  must  be  carefully  apportioned  among  the  be- 
siegers lest  he  be  overwhelmed. 

By  a  happy  chance  I  also  attended  Mr.  Wilson's 
first  meeting  with  the  Washington  correspondents, 
and,  as  there  can  be  no  fair  trial  of  speed  without  a 
pace  maker,  I  remembered  that  chill  and  correct  per- 
formance, for  the  chief  interest  in  Washington  these 
days  is  in  the  sharp  and  striking  contrast  between 
what  is  and  what  was.  Mr.  Wilson  stood  behind  his 
desk,  his  visitors  filed  in  and  stood  in  a  thickened 
crescent  before  him.  There  was  a  pause,  a  cool  silence, 
and  presently  some  one  ventured  a  tentative  question. 
It  was  answered  crisply,  politely,  and  in  the  fewest 
possible  words.  A  pleasant  time  was  not  had  by  all. 


20  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Mr.  Harding  showed  another  approach.  He  met 
the  incoming  throng  at  the  door  and  shook  hands  with 
every  one  of  them.  For  most  of  them  he  had  an  indi- 
vidual word  of  greeting.  Apparently  it  was  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world  for  him  to  do.  He  made  it  a 
very  simple,  unaffected  action.  The  men  had  come  in 
such  numbers  that  they  completely  encircled  the 
room  in  a  triple  ring.  Mr.  Harding  was  in  the  center 
of  the  circle,  very  much  at  his  ease,  leaning  against 
and  half  sitting  upon  the  edge  of  his  flat-topped  desk. 
He  did  not  wait  for  questions,  but  began  to  talk,  an 
easy,  gossipy  chat  about  the  first  cabinet  meeting  of 
his  administration.  He  went  on  to  other  things.  He 
knew  the  professional  interests  of  his  hearers.  He  told 
them  "the  story"  of  what  they  came  to  hear.  He 
talked  frankly,  but  not  indiscreetly.  The  whole  ar- 
ranged, premeditated  contact  was  free  of  constraint 
or  any  hint  of  stiffness. 

Day  by  day  Mr.  Harding  is  being  bodied  forth  to 
the  country  as  a  genial,  kindly,  generous,  good-hearted, 
big  fellow  who  loves  his  fellow  man,  who  loves  simple 
things,  who  is  without  austerity  or  bitterness,  who  is 
not  cantankerous,  who  is  easy  to  get  along  with.  In 
point  of  fact  this  all  may  be  true.  The  impression  is 
given  out  partly  naturally  and  involuntarily  by  Mr. 
Harding  himself  in  his  daily  relations  with  his  visitors 
and  partly  by  skilled  and  unostentatious  arrangement. 

Almost  every  day  delegations  come  to  see  the  Presi- 
dent. Almost  every  one  of  them  is  taken  out  on  the 


HARDING  21 

stretch  of  turf  between  the  south  portico  and  the 
executive  offices,  and  in  front  of  the  latticed  enclosures 
where  the  White  House  laundry  is  hung,  and  photo- 
graphed with  Mr.  Harding.  Almost  all  of  these  photo- 
graphs are  reproduced  in  the  newspapers.  You  must 
have  seen  many  of  them.  They  show  Mr.  Harding 
with  a  kindly  smile  on  his  face.  He  takes  a  good  pic- 
ture, and  his  bold  features  reproduce  well  in  the 
coarse-screen  half-tones  that  the  newspapers  use.  It 
is  effective  publicity  and  quite  legitimate.  These  re- 
produced scenes  of  the  chief  magistrate  among  his 
people  gratify  a  natural  craving.  The  people  who  are 
taken  with  the  President  and  their  friends  like  the 
pictures.  The  newspapers  print  them  because  they 
are  news  and  because  they  interest  readers.  In  this 
way  you  may  have  seen  Mr.  Harding  in  the  White 
House  garden  with  printers,  golf  players,  Boy  Scouts, 
Girl  Scouts,  boys  who  wanted  a  subscription  for  a 
swimming-pool,  Einstein  of  relativity  fame  with  his 
hair  every  which  way  —  as  Senator  Spooner's  used  to 
stand  —  and  looking  as  startled  as  a  Thomson's 
gazelle;  in  brief,  representatives  of  every  type  and 
group  of  men  and  women  this  broad  Republic  can 
offer. 

I  do  not  think  Mr.  Harding  has  greatly  altered  the 
opinion  that  was  held  before  of  his  substance,  his  qual- 
ities, and  his  capacities,  but  by  his  kindliness  and 
affability  he  has  notably  affected  and  increased  leni- 
ency of  judgment.  I  have  noticed  that  people  who 


22  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

come  in  contact  with  him  cease  to  speak  of  him  or 
judge  him  detachedly.  They  say  good-humoredly 
when  his  name  comes  up,  "But  after  all  he  is  a  good 
scout.  He  wants  to  do  what  is  right.  Give  him  a 
chance.  He's  got  a  hard  job  to  fill  and  he  is  doing  his 
best." 

That  feeling  is  a  decided  and  enviable  asset  for  any 
President  to  have.  It  extends  to  the  press.  The  corre- 
spondents still  attend  in  unprecedented  numbers  Mr. 
Harding's  bi-weekly  audiences.  They  find  these  meet- 
ings useful.  They  get  news.  These  contacts  are  repro- 
duced in  a  thousand  places.  The  President  is  presented 
as  he  presents  himself  with  all  his  native  kindliness  and 
appealing  qualities  to  the  fore. 

So  far  then  has  Mr.  Harding  disclosed  himself  to  the 
resident  microscopists,  as  he  stands  in  the  porch  of  his 
high  adventure  and  great  emprise.  The  quality  he 
has  shown  the  correspondents  has  had  its  effect  upon 
the  Senate  and  all  of  Washington.  He  has  revealed 
himself  as  the  great  emollient  that  was  needed  to 
soothe,  to  heal,  and  to  relax  the  angry,  inflamed, 
jangled,  querulous  local  condition  and  situation.  But 
this  is  only  the  beginning.  Whether  he  has  sterner 
qualities,  whether  he  has  toughness  of  fiber,  whether 
he  can  endure  strains  and  stresses,  whether  he  can 
withstand  pressure,  whether  he  has  taste  and  discrimi- 
nation —  in  fine,  whether  he  is  a  strong  man  fit  to  be 
President,  must  yet  be  proved. 


COOLIDGE:  FOSTER-CHILD  OF  SILENCE 

THE  elections  of  1920  imported  into  the  City  of  Con- 
versation, as  one  of  its  necessary  consequences,  per- 
haps the  oddest  and  most  singular  apparition  this  vocal 
and  articulate  settlement  has  ever  known  :  a  politician 
who  does  not,  who  will  not,  who  seemingly  cannot  talk. 
A  well  of  silence.  A  center  of  stillness. 

Moreover,  it  appears  from  the  meager  record  that  he 
thinks  of  himself  as  Peter  Pan,  the  boy  who  never  grew 
up  to  be  a  man. 

We  had,  of  course,  all  heard  of  Calvin  Coolidge  ;  that 
he  had  been  City  Councilman,  City  Solicitor,  Court 
Clerk,  State  Representative,  Mayor,  State  Senator, 
Lieutenant-Governor,  and  Governor  in  Massachusetts ; 
that  he  had  held  one  public  job  after  another  virtually 
continuously  since  1899;  that  being  in  place  and  in 
politics  was  with  him  a  vocation  and  an  avocation. 
But  the  man  himself  as  a  social  human  being  was  not 
known  at  all.  There  was  a  bright  curiosity  to  be  satis- 
fied. 

Presiding  over  the  Senate  is  the  least  of  the  duties  of 
the  Vice- President  of  the  United  States  in  the  Wash- 
ington scheme  of  things.  What  time  he  spends  at  the 
Capitol  saying,  "  Does  the  Senator  from  South  Dakota 
yield  to  the  Senator  from  Mississippi?"  or,  "The 
Senator  from  New  Hampshire  suggests  the  absence 


24  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

of  a  quorum.  The  clerk  will  call  the  roll,"  or,  when  the 
calendar  is  being  called,  "The  bill  will  be  passed 
over,"  is  his  period  of  reflection  and  digestion.  His 
day's  work  really  begins  when  he  gets  to  his  hotel  in 
the  evening  and  finds  his  dress-clothes  laid  out  on  the 
bed  and  Mrs.  Coolidge  tells  him,  "We  are  dining  with 
Senator  Whosis  to-night  and  you  must  be  dressed  and 
ready  to  leave  here  at  a  quarter  to  eight."  His  dress- 
clothes  are  his  working  clothes  ;  the  overalls  of  a  Vice- 
President. 

By  tradition  and  precedent  the  Vice- President  has 
become  the  official  diner-out  of  the  Administration. 
Every  night  from  November  until  May  he  must  sally 
forth  in  his  glad  raiment  and  eat  for  his  party  and  his 
chief.  He  and  the  potted  palms  that  the  close  observer 
of  official  life  notes  being  hauled  from  one  house  to 
another  every  afternoon  during  the  season  are  social 
fixtures.  No  big  dinner  is  complete  without  both  of 
them.  The  palms  stand  in  the  corners  and  on  the 
stairways. 

Anciently  it  was  a  game,  mildly  diverting,  to  scratch 
one's  name  on  the  under  side  of  the  fronds  and  then 
keep  tab  to  see  how  many  times  one  encountered  the 
same  palms  during  the  winter  season.  The  palms  are 
background,  but  the  Vice- President  is  essentially  fore- 
ground. He  sits  on  the  right  of  the  hostess.  He  is  the 
chief  figure  of  the  feast.  The  palms  are,  or  are  sup- 
posed to  be,  decorative.  The  Vice- President  seldom  or 
never  is.  The  theory  is  that  he  is  witty  and  amusing,  q? 


Copyright  by  Underwood  If  Underwood 

GOVERNOR  AND  MRS.  COOLIDGE 
A  Costume  for  a  Campaign  Picture 


,      COOL1DGE  25 

learned  and  informative,  or  a  well  of  deep  inside  stuff 
about  current  political  affairs. 

Now  as  it  turns  out  Mr.  Coolidge  is  none  of  these 
things.  To  the  whole  of  Washington,  social  and  politi- 
cal, to  this  juncture,  he  presents  an  impenetrable 
blank.  He  dines  out  with  the  best  of  them.  Never  a 
night  elapses  that  the  big  closed  car  placed  at  his  serv- 
ice by  the  fond  taxpayers  does  not  convey  him  to  a 
dinner  party.  No  soup,  however  thick  or  thin,  deters 
him,  no  fish,  however  disguised  by  the  pallid,  viscous 
goo  the  chefs  seem  to  like,  daunts  him,  and  thence 
south  through  the  entree  to  the  ice.  And  all  in  perfect 
silence. 

No  hammer  fell,  no  ponderous  axes  rung; 

Like  some  tall  palm  the  noiseless  fabric  sprung. 
Majestic  silence! 

But  I  must  say  it  is  hard  on  the  ladies.  They  often 
talk  about  it.  They  are  supposed  to  make  him  have  a 
good  time.  And  having  a  good  time  at  dinner  is  popu- 
larly supposed  to  be  indicated  by  a  light  rattle  of  small 
talk.  One  hears  that  Mr.  Coolidge  feels  sometimes 
that  he  is  not  doing  all  that  is  expected  of  him,  for 
there  are  vague  current  reports  that  he  asks  wonder- 
ingly,  "What  do  they  talk  about?  I  hear  them  and 
see  them  all  about  me,  all  at  it,  but  what  do  they  find 
to  say?"  One  agreeable  woman  was  the  nine  days' 
wonder  and  envy  of  all  Washington  because  she  made 
him  laugh  one  night  at  dinner.  She  never  would  give 
the  recipe  or  tell  what  she  said.  "  I  am  going  to  use  it 
again  next  winter,"  she  declared  thriftily. 


26  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

But  every  one  who  has  contrived  to  strike  a  response 
from  the  close-mouthed  and  eminent  figure  has  not 
been  so  reticent.  Some  of  the  ladies  have  told  the 
formula  they  have  used  to  effect  an  entrance.  From 
them  I  learn  that  the  equivalent  of  open  sesame  to  one 
small  compartment  of  conversation  is  an  appreciative 
reference  to  Vermont.  It  does  not  disclose  great 
vistas,  nor  does  it  reveal  anything  that  is  not  already 
set  down  in  the  present-day  geographies,  but  it  does 
serve  to  provoke  a  mild  simulation  of  dinner-table 
chatter.  The  subject  has,  moreover,  an  apparently  un- 
ending interest.  It  can  be  employed  four  or  five  times 
by  the  same  person.  And  so  it  comes  about  that  some, 
at  least,  women,  who  are  virtually  sure  to  sit  beside 
Mr.  Coolidge  when  they  are  at  dinner  together,  have 
made  an  intensive  study  of  Vermont;  its  geography, 
its  climate,  its  mineral  and  agricultural  resources,  its 
population,  its  scenery,  the  conformation  of  its  hills 
and  the  configuration  of  its  valleys,  its  industries,  its 
census  figures  —  everything,  in  fine,  but  its  politics. 
That  is  something  that  is  never  spoken  of.  And  when 
you  come  to  think  of  it,  the  natural  resources  of 
Vermont,  such  as  they  are,  are  quite  the  safest  and 
sanest  subject  in  the  world,  as  a  subject  of  conversa- 
tion which  may  be  repeated.  They  never  got  anybody 
into  trouble.  And  that,  of  course,  is  something. 

I  gather  that  our  hero  has  always  been  like  this; 
that  from  his  boyhood  he  has  dreaded  meeting  people 
if  it  involved  exchanging  words  with  them.  It  makes 


COOLIDGE  27 

his  career  as  a  politician,  in  so  vocal  and  clamorous  a 
constituency  as  ours,  all  the  more  conspicuous  and 
odd.  He  is  never  seen  in  public  places.  He  does  not 
consort  with  groups  as  do  other  politicians.  He  is 
close,  close,  close,  and  as  detached  as  a  villa  site.  His 
letters  are  even  briefer  than  his  spoken  words.  One 
that  I  know  about  consists  merely  of  one  word  and  the 
initials  UC.  C."  If  this  is  a  fair  sample,  and  I  assume 
that  it  is,  when  his  life  and  letters  come  to  be  pub- 
lished, they  can  be  issued  on  one  octavo  postal  card. 

In  common  with  every  one  else  at  Washington  I 
have  been  eager  to  pluck  out  the  heart  of  Mr.  Cool- 
idge's  mystery,  to  discover  what  sort  of  man  he 
is,  to  establish  a  basis  for  appraisal.  And  all  in  vain, 
for  he  has  revealed  nothing,  disclosed  nothing.  He  has 
been  described  and  observed  as  intently  as  was  possible 
under  the  circumstances  in  the  crush  preceding  the 
largest  and  gayest  of  dinner  parties,  standing  quite 
still  and  saying  not  a  blessed  word,  though  all  about 
him  were  babble  and  laughter  and  conversation.  He 
didn't  seem  ill  at  ease  or  embarrassed  or  tongue-tied. 
He  was  just  still.  Silent  upon  a  peak  in  Darien  is  no 
name  for  it.  He  gave  no  appearance  of  being  about  to 
say  something  presently.  It  was  an  absolute  calm. 
Old  Ironsides  at  anchor  lay  in  the  harbor  of  Mahon. 
The  waves  to  sleep  had  gone  — that  sort  of  thing.  Not 
a  leaf  stirring.  It  was  impressive  —  and  he  so  small. 
A  big  man  can  be  as  monosyllabic  as  he  pleases,  but 
more  is  expected  of  slight  men. 


28  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

One  sought  in  vain  an  account  of  the  experiences  of 
those  veterans  of  forlorn  hopes  who  in  the  devoted  pur- 
suance of  social  duties  had  dashed  themselves  against 
the  ice  barrier.  They  had  nothing  to  tell.  Over  the 
Alps  lay  Italy,  they  thought,  but  none  of  them  had 
won  the  summit,  and  so  they  couldn't  be  sure  that  the 
view  was  worth  the  climb. 

The  only  thing  left  to  do  was  to  go  back  and  search 
the  records,  to  exhume  fossil  remains,  to  study  the  nar- 
ratives left  by  the  explorers  who  had  been  on  the  same 
trail.  When  President  Meiklejohn  of  Amherst,  in  the 
course  of  his  duty,  conferred  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws  on  Mr.  Coolidge,  he  complimented  him  on  teach- 
ing the  value  of  "adequate  brevity."  He  could  not 
have  done  less.  He  might  easily  have  gone  on  and  done 
more.  What  may  be  termed  Mr.  Coolidge's  "short 
game"  with  our  common  tongue  is  worthy  of  all  the 
admiring  comments  that  can  be  bestowed  upon  it.  But 
his  lightness  and  delicacy  of  touch  in  sinking  his  short 
putts  when  he  has  got  the  English  language  on  the 
green  approaches  the  marvelous.  He  is  a  master  of 
the  reversible  short  sentence  that  can  be  read  from 
either  direction  without  losing  the  force  of  its  impact. 

A  paper  of  his  on  the  nature  of  politics  ends  with 
the  sentence,  "Destiny  is  in  you."  Just  like  that. 
"Destiny  is  in  you."  It  means  —  whatever  you  want 
it  to  mean.  It  is  compact.  It  is  polished.  It  is  senten- 
tious, and  it  gives  all  the  appearance  of  being  a  dis- 
tillation of  profound  thought. 


COOLIDGE  29 

One  night  in  the  long  ago  a  press  agent  came  to 
our  newspaper  to  tell  the  dramatic  reporter  about  a 
dancer  he  was  bringing  to  our  town  and  how  light- 
footed  she  was.  He  was  voluble  in  his  praise  of  her 
fairy  feet.  "Listen,"  he  said;  "this  little  lady  could 
walk  on  bubbles  from  the  Battery  to  Harlem  Bridge 
and  never  bust  a  bub."  And  so  he  whom  I  now  sing 
walks  circumspectly  through  the  lush  meadows  of 
English  speech,  never  crushing  a  flower,  while  he 
plucks  his  modest  posies.  He  diversifies  his  literary 
nosegays. 

A  phrase,  to  Capital:  "History  reveals  no  civilized 
people  among  whom  there  were  not  a  highly  educated 
class,  and  large  aggregations  of  wealth,  represented 
usually  by  the  clergy  and  the  nobility.  Inspiration 
has  always  come  from  above.  .  .  .  Large  profits  mean 
large  pay  rolls.  But  profits  must  be  the  result  of  serv- 
ice performed...  .MI 

And  then  a  word  to  Labor:  "Statutes  must  appeal 
to  more  than  material  welfare.  Wages  won't  satisfy, 
be  they  never  so  large.  Nor  houses ;  nor  lands;  nor  cou- 
pons ,  though  they  fall  thick  as  the  leaves  of  autumn. 
Man  has  a  spiritual  nature.  Touch  it,  and  it  must 
respond  as  the  magnet  responds  to  the  pole.  To  that, 
not  to  selfishness,  let  the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth 
appeal.  Recognize  the  immortal  worth  and  dignity  of 
man.  Let  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  proclaim  to  her 
humblest  citizen,  performing  the  most  menial  task, 

1  Uave  Faith  in  Massachusetts.    Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  1919. 


30  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

the  recognition  of  his  manhood,  the  recognition  that 
all  men  are  peers,  the  humblest  with  the  most  exalted, 
the  recognition  that  all  work  is  glorified." 

But  it  was  Mr.  Coolidge's  disquisition  on  the  na- 
ture of  politics  that  I  sought  most  hopefully  while 
trying  to  find  out  and  report  about  him.  I  looked  to 
see  what  he  had  to  say  about  the  office-holders  and 
found  this:  "  But  the  fact  remains  that  office  brokerage 
is  here  held  in  reprehensive  scorn  and  professional 
office-seeking  in  contempt.  Every  native-born  Amer- 
ican, however,  is  potentially  a  President,  and  it  must 
always  be  remembered  that  the  obligation  to  serve 
the  State  is  forever  binding  upon  all,  although  office  is 
the  gift  of  the  people.  .  .  .  Another  reason  why  polit- 
ical life  of  this  nature  is  not  chosen  as  a  career  is 
that  it  does  not  pay.  .  .  .  Few  prominent  members  of 
Congress  are  dependent  on  their  salary,  which  is  but 
another  way  of  saying  that  in  Washington  Senators 
and  Representatives  need  more  than  their  official 
salaries  to  become  most  effective. 

"...  But  I  do  not  feel  that  there  is  any  more  obliga- 
tion to  run  for  office  than  there  is  to  become  a  banker, 
a  merchant,  a  teacher,  or  enter  any  other  special  occu- 
pation. As  indicated,  some  men  have  a  particular 
aptitude  in  this  direction  and  some  have  none.  Of 
course  experience  counts  here  as  in  any  other  human 
activity,  and  all  experience  worth  the  name  is  the  re- 
sult of  application,  of  time  and  thought  and  study  and 
practice.  If  the  individual  finds  he  has  liking  and 


COOLIDGE  31 

capacity  for  this  work,  he  will  involuntarily  find  him- 
self engaged  in  it.  There  is  no  catalogue  of  such  capa- 
city. One  man  gets  results  in  one  way,  another  in 
another.  But  in  general  only  the  man  of  broad 
sympathy  and  deep  understanding  of  his  fellow-men 
can  meet  with  much  success." 

I  won't  pretend  to  discern  an  autobiographical 
note  in  that,  though  some  persons  gifted  with  quicker 
divination  may.  At  any  rate,  no  exception  can  be 
taken  to  it  by  even  the  most  critical,  nor  of  such  pro- 
nouncements as  these: 

"We  live  under  a  republican  form  of  government. 
We  need  forever  to  remember  that  representative 
government  does  represent.  A  careless,  indifferent 
representative  is  the  result  of  a  careless,  indifferent 
electorate." 

"There  are  selfishness  and  injustice  and  evil  in  the 
world "  ...  , 

"There  will  come  out  of  government  exactly  what 
is  put  into  it." 

"Society  gets  about  what  it  deserves." 

"Of  course  the  present  estimate  is  not  the  ultimate. 
There  are  men  here  who  appear  important  that  will 
not  appear  so  in  years  to  come." 

The  one  personal  reference  I  find  in  this  discourse 

on  politics  is  this:  " Cannon  has  said  of  McKinley  that 

his  ear  was  so  close  to  the  ground  that  it  was  full  of 

grasshoppers." 

*  You  will  easily  perceive  that  the  Vice- President  is 


32  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

no  trouble-maker.  He  does  not  introduce  new  and 
strange  elements  in  an  already  disordered  world.  He 
clings  fast  to  the  established  doctrine.  He  sings  the 
old  songs.  He  likes  the  familiar  known  things.  In  the 
old  parliamentary  phrase  he  calls  for  the  regular  order. 
He  never  does  the  unexpected  or  the  surprising  thing. 
He  is  not  the  first,  or  even  the  second  or  third,  by  whom 
the  new  is  tried.  His  career  in  politics  is  proof  that  a 
substantial  element  among  us  approve  just  that  sort 
of  thing. 

On  the  day  of  the  first  Cabinet  meeting  of  the  Hard- 
ing administration  all  the  newspaper  correspondents 
in  Washington,  and  apparently  all  the  movie  operators 
and  camera  men  east  of  a  line  drawn  north  and  south 
through  Pittsburgh,  attended  at  the  executive  offices 
to  make  a  pictorial  and  descriptive  record  of  the  new- 
comers, for  the  enlightenment  and  education  of  the 
dear  ones  at  home.  The  photographers  ran  as  wild  as 
deuces.  They  took  pictures  of  the  Cabinet  members 
and  the  President,  collectively  and  individually,  in- 
doors and  outdoors,  in  motion  and  standing  still,  and 
finally  a  series  of  prints  of  the  Cabinet  in  session.  Mr. 
Coolidge  sat  with  the  Cabinet.  It  was  an  innovation. 
He  was  pictured  in  his  place  at  the  Cabinet  table  sit- 
ting with  the  others.  When  the  meeting  was  over,  the 
correspondent  of  the  Boston  Transcript,  seeking  a 
paragraph  of  local  interest  to  enliven  his  dispatch, 
greeted  the  great  man  and  asked : 

"Mr.  Vice- President,  where  did  you  sit  at  the  Cabi- 


,  COOLIDGE  33 

net  table?  What  place  was  allotted  you  in  the  order  of 
precedence?" 

Mr.  Coolidge  considered  thoughtfully.  He  weighed 
the  possibilities  of  any  hasty  speech.  He  thought 
deeply.  Then  he  said,  slowly: 

"I  had  rather  any  announcement  on  that  point 
should  come  directly  from  the  President." 

When  he  chooses  he  has  the  power  of  condensed  epi- 
grammatic expression.  Take  this  bit,  for  example: 
"Do  the  day's  work.  If  it  be  to  protect  the  rights  of 
the  weak,  whoever  objects,  do  it.  If  it  be  to  help  a 
powerful  corporation  better  to  serve  the  people,  what- 
ever the  opposition,  do  that.  Expect  to  be  called  a 
stand-patter,  but  don't  be  a  stand-patter.  Expect  to 
be  called  a  demagogue,  but  don't  be  a  demagogue. 
Don't  hesitate  to  be  as  revolutionary  as  science. 
Don't  hesitate  to  be  as  reactionary  as  the  multiplica- 
tion table.  Don 't  expect  to  build  up  the  weak  by  pull- 
ing down  the  strong.  Don't  hurry  to  legislate.  Give 
administration  a  chance  to  catch  up  with  legislation." 

Before  the  microscopists  at  Washington  are  done 
with  him,  he  will  be  catalogued  and  indexed  and  cross- 
referenced.  He  is  under  scrutiny.  Before  his  term  of 
office  is  over,  though  he  may  continue  dumb  as  any 
oracle,  he  will  be  known,  measured,  weighed,  ap- 
praised, and  valued  for  what  he  is. 

I  know  competent  questers  who  are  hot  on  the  trail. 
For  the  present  they  make  only  provisional  verdicts  on 
this  foster-child  of  Silence  and  slow  Time.  He  is  a 
type  entirely  new  to  Washington. 


BRYAN:  GAYLY  THE  TROUBADOUR 

MR.  BRYAN  is  one  of  the  great  troubadours,  and  as 
such  I  sing  him.  Never  in  our  time  was  another  such  as 
he.  Troubadouring  is  the  thing  he  does  best.  It  is 
really  his  vocation.  He  enjoys  it.  Faring  forth  with 
him  among  the  constituencies  is  an  experience  full  of 
lights  and  shadows  and  picturesque  and  dramatic 
incidents. 

The  open  season  for  troubadours  is  in  the  two  mel- 
low months  preceding  the  November  presidential  elec- 
tion. This  is  the  time  of  the  real  singing.  It  is  the  time 
of  "swinging  around  the  circle."  The  candidates  for 
the  presidency  have  to  go  out  and  perform  whether 
or  not  they  are  troubadours  and  have  any  love  for  it. 
Cox  and  Harding  left  no  traditions.  Neither  Taft  nor 
Wilson  was  a  real  troubadour.  Bryan  and  Roosevelt 
were,  and  Bryan  is  the  best  of  them  all.  He  likes  it  all : 
the  early  rising,  the  crowded  days,  the  bands,  the  tur- 
moil, the  shouting  and  applause.  He  doesn't  mind  the 
queer  food,  because  he  eats  only  milk  toast  in  towns 
that  don't  have  a  first-class  presidential  postmaster. 
He  can  sleep  anywhere  and  at  any  time.  Therefore, 
it  used  to  seem  odd,  to  one  who  knew  his  backgrounds, 
to  see  Mr.  Bryan  sitting  in  the  State  Department  in 
an  environment  of  braided  one-button  morning  coats, 
and  an  atmosphere  of  burning  sealing  wax  suggesting 
secrecy.  Somehow  he  didn't  seem  to  fit  into  the  picture. 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

WILLIAM   JENNINGS    BRYAN 


BRYAN  35 

Quite  aside  from  the  desire  to  make  money,  Mr. 
Bryan's  appearances  on  the  Chautauqua  circuit  after 
he  became  Secretary  of  State  came  from  a  liking  for 
that  sort  of  thing.  The  general  criticism  at  that  time 
was  that  it  was  a  pretty  poor  sort  of  business  for  a 
Secretary  of  State ;  but  that  aspect  of  the  affair  did 
not  mean  anything  to  Mr.  Bryan.  His  habits  are  fixed, 
and  one  of  them  is  to  speak  at  Chautauquas.  He  would 
probably  have  done  the  same  had  he  been  President. 
One  of  the  things  Mr.  Bryan's  critics  do  not  under- 
stand is  that  all  of  his  broad  experience  and  the  changes 
in  his  personal  fortunes  have  not  affected  any  of  the 
essential  qualities  of  his  character.  In  his  daily  walk 
and  habits  he  is  the  same  man  now  that  he  was  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Being  Secretary  of  State  made  no  differ- 
ence to  him.  He  could  not  understand  that  as  Secre- 
tary of  State  he  could  not  say  and  do  things  that  he  had 
been  doing  without  public  criticism  all  the  years.  It 
was  an  impropriety  for  a  Secretary  of  State  to  appear 
on  the  platform  the  same  evening  with  itinerant 
troupes  of  entertainers.  It  had  never  been  accounted 
an  impropriety  for  W.  J.  Bryan,  private  citizen,  to 
appear  in  such  an  environment.  Mr.  Bryan  made  no 
distinction. 

Let  me  begin  at  the  beginning  and  attempt  to  tell 
the  story  of  a  day,  which  began  at  one  o'clock  on  an 
October  morning  at  Lincoln,  and  ended  at  eleven 
o'clock  that  night  when  the  train  pulled  out  from  Cedar 
Rapids  for  Chicago.  The  Peerless  Leader  made  fifteen 


36  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

speeches  in  that  interval  and  shook  hands  with  many 
thousands  of  admiring  farmers  and  railroad  shop  men. 

Mr.  Bryan  spoke  the  preceding  night  at  Havelock 
to  a  throng  of  railway  employees.  It  was  cold  and  raw 
and  drizzling,  and  the  black  mud  was  sticky  underfoot. 
He  got  back  into  Lincoln,  very  hoarse,  on  a  trolley  car, 
about  midnight,  and  had  supper  up  in  Frank  Richards's 
rooms,  with  the  five  correspondents  who  were  traveling 
with  him  and  his  secretary,  Bob  Rose.  Richards  was 
the  proprietor  of  the  hotel  at  Lincoln.  The  cold  fried 
chicken,  the  sliced  tomatoes,  and  the  bread-and-butter 
sandwiches  were  finished,  and  the  party  came  down- 
stairs to  find  the  streets  shrouded  in  a  heavy  fog.  We 
were  supposed  to  be  on  our  way  to  Des  Moines  and 
bought  tickets  for  that  point.  There  were  twenty  or 
more  men  on  the  platform  of  the  little  station.  Most 
of  them  shook  hands  with  Mr.  Bryan  before  the  train 
came  in,  a  few  minutes  before  one  o'clock. 

The  sleeping-car  porter  waked  the  members  of  Mr. 
Bryan's  party  soon  after  six  o'clock  that  morning  and 
they  were  in  various  stages  of  undress  when  the  train 
arrived  at  Valley  Junction,  an  indeterminate  sort  of 
little  town  five  miles  below  Des  Moines.  Mr.  Bryan 
had  his  face  covered  with  lather,  preparatory  to  shav- 
ing. Some  of  the  other  members  of  the  party  were  just 
climbing  sleepily  out  of  their  upper  berths.  Early  as 
was  the  hour,  two  or  three  hundred  people  were  at  the 
station,  and  the  Local  Committee  clamored  for  admis- 
sion. Bob  Rose  went  out  to  the  platform  to  explain. 


BRYAN  37 

"  Mr.  Bryan  is  dressing  and  is  sorry  that  he  cannot 
come  out  and  see  you  all,"  he  said. 

"But  he  is  scheduled  to  make  a  speech  here.  We 
have  all  come  down  to  meet  him.  There  is  a  big  crowd 
up  the  street  waiting,"  was  the  amazing  reply. 

Neither  Mr.  Bryan  nor  any  of  his  party  had  been 
notified  of  this  engagement,  but  the  Peerless  Leader 
hastily  washed  the  lather  off  his  face,  dressed  and  got 
off  the  train.  The  laggard  members  of  his  party  fol- 
lowed him,  collarless  and  in  their  shirt-sleeves,  and 
completed  their  toilet  on  the  station  platform,  in  the 
presence  of  the  amused  and  gaping  crowd.  The  pro- 
cession started  on  foot  up  Main  Street,  headed  by  the 
Valley  Junction  Silver  Cornet  Band,  consisting  of  two 
fifes  and  a  drum. 

The  first  stop  was  at  "Hy"  Drexel's  cafe"  for  break- 
fast. The  doors  were  closed  to  all  except  the  members 
of  Mr.  Bryan's  party,  while  the  populace  pressed  their 
noses  to  the  pane  at  the  front  windows,  watching  the 
great  man  and  his  flying  squadron  eat  an  excellent 
breakfast  of  ham  and  eggs,  lamb  chops,  and  sliced 
oranges.  The  Peerless  Leader  consumed  two  cavern- 
ous bowls  of  milk  toast. 

From  this  oasis  the  line  of  march  led  a  block  west 
and  half  a  block  north  to  a  vacant  lot  adjoining  the 
City  Hall.  The  fire  department  occupied  the  ground 
floor  of  the  municipal  building,  and  on  the  side  of  it 
facing  the  vacant  lot  was  painted  an  advertisement  for 
a  real  Havana  five-cent  cigar.  "Cap"  de  Ford  intro- 


38  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

duced  Mr.  Bryan  to  the  thousand  or  more  people  who 
crowded  about  the  stand.  While  waiting  for  the  "  Cap" 
to  conclude  his  introduction,  one  somehow  found  one- 
self feeling  sorry  for  Mr.  Bryan.  One  involuntarily 
recalled  other  days,  and  remembered  other  scenes ;  of 
tired  actors  waiting  in  the  old  car  shed  at  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  for  the  early  morning  train  to  Birmingham. 
The  whole  present  performance  seemed  so  abnormal. 
The  environment  evidently  depressed  Mr.  Bryan,  too, 
for  he  preached  to  his  audience,  scarcely  talking  poli- 
tics at  all. 

The  crowd  followed  Mr.  Bryan  to  the  station,  and 
some  girls  sang  campaign  songs  until  he  got  on  the 
rear  day  coach  of  a  local  train  to  go  to  Perry,  where  he 
was  scheduled  to  speak  at  noon. 

At  every  stop  Mr.  Bryan  made  a  rear-platform 
speech  to  shouting,  enthusiastic  crowds  of  farmers, 
their  wives  and  children.  The  rear  coach  became 
crowded  to  the  point  of  suffocation.  At  every  stop  the 
passengers  in  the  forward  coaches  who  had  not  con- 
trived to  squeeze  into  Mr.  Bryan's  coach  got  off  the 
train  and  ran  back  to  the  tail  end  to  hear  the  speeches. 
At  the  warning  cry,  "All  aboard  !"  they  would  make  a 
dash  for  the  train.  The  man  in  charge  of  the  baggage 
car  came  back  to  hear  every  speech  between  Valley 
Junction  and  Perry,  running  the  entire  length  of  the 
train  twice  each  time.  He  must  have  done  sixty-three 
miles  before  noon. 

In  these  rear-platform  speeches  Mr.  Bryan  freely 


BRYAN  39 

used  Biblical  quotations  and  allusions.  Every  time  he 
made  use  of  one  the  crowd  shouted  with  enthusiastic 
approval.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  effective 
oratorical  style  than  Mr.  Bryan  employs  in  these 
speeches.  It  is  intimate,  easy,  and  colloquial,  and 
makes  instant  appeal  to  his  audiences.  His  sentences 
are  short  and  ordinarily  he  employs  words  of  not  more 
than  two  syllables.  He  has  acquired  the  rare  art  of 
condensation  and  can  say  a  great  deal  in  a  brief  space 
of  time.  He  drives  his  point  home.  He  understands  his 
audiences  from  the  ground  up.  Their  mode  of  life  and 
their  thoughts  are  as  familiar  to  him  as  his  own.  There 
can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  he  "gets  next"  to  the 
people. 

All  day  long  men  came  up  to  Mr.  Bryan  renewing  old 
acquaintance,  and  the  last  thing  one  heard  that  night 
from  an  upper  berth,  as  Mr.  Bryan  was  crawling  into 
a  lower  one,  was  a  whiskered  individual  saying  :  "You 
know  me,  Mr.  Bryan.  I  am  old  man  Mullens'  son  — 
J.  P.  Mullens  is  my  name.  You  remember  when  you 
was  up  to  our  town  there  was  a  big  crowd  of  people  in 
the  street,  and  I  stuck  my  head  out  of  the  window  and 
yelled  '  Hooray  for  Bryan ' ;  and  you  looked  up  at  me 
and  waved  your  hand.  I'm  that  very  fellow." 

Of  course  Mr.  Bryan  remembered  him.  He  remem- 
bers all  the  various  and  sundry  individuals  that  come 
to  him  with  the  same  formula :  "You  remember  me? 
I'm  the  man, — " 

Possibly  the  most  illuminating  incident  of  the  whole 


40  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

day  came  near  Tama.  Mr.  Bryan  had  gone  forward 
into  the  washroom  of  the  car  to  get  the  deferred  shave 
of  which  he  stood  in  need.  He  had  just  finished  and 
was  standing  coatless  and  collarless,  with  a  towel  stuck 
in  his  neckband  to  protect  his  shirt-front,  when  the 
train  stopped  for  a  moment  at  a  little  station  just 
outside  of  Tama.  Mr.  Bryan  had  not  had  time  to  wash 
the  remaining  flecks  of  lather  from  his  face.  The 
people  outside  were  calling  for  him.  A  half-dozen  men 
and  some  dear  old  ladies  in  sunbonnets  were  running 
alongside  of  the  car  calling  up:  "Is  Mr.  Bryan  in 
there?" 

The  Peerless  Leader  responded  :  "Yes,  but  I'm  shav- 
ing and  can't  come  out." 

"Well,  stick  your  head  out  of  the  window  and  let  us 
have  a  look  at  you,  anyway." 

Mr.  Bryan  pulled  the  towel  from  his  neckband  and 
thrust  his  head  and  the  upper  part  of  his  body  out  of 
the  window,  all  in  undress  as  he  was,  and  grasped  the 
hands  that  were  reached  up  to  him. 

Neither  he  nor  the  people  outside  seemed  to  think 
there  was  anything  unusual  in  the  performance.  It  was 
not  undignified.  It  was  just  friendly  and  simple,  and 
lacking  in  all  pretense.  Neither  the  men  nor  the  women 
who  wanted  to  shake  hands  with  Mr.  Bryan  were 
"shocked"  at  seeing  him  without  coat,  waistcoat,  or 
collar,  and  with  face  unwashed  after  shaving. 

Now  that  is  the  sort  of  a  day  that  Mr.  Bryan  likes. 
He  turned  in  as  fresh  as  a  daisy  that  night  and  beam- 


BRYAN  41 

ing  with  happiness.  No  concourse  of  ambassadors, 
however  splendiferous,  no  Washington  company,  how- 
ever brilliant,  and  no  mere  "desk  job,"  however  dis- 
tinguished, could  compensate  Mr.  Bryan  for  continued 
absence  from  these  beloved  scenes.  For  his  is  the 
singing  heart  of  the  real  troubadour.  He  cannot  with- 
stand its  calling. 

I  recall  and  recapture  another  scene. 

When  the  Democrats  sit  formally  at  meat,  they 
insist,  quite  in  the  old  spacious  way,  on  having  their 
troubadours,  minnesingers,  and  jongleurs  about  them. 
They  love  their  sweet  singers.  They  love  the  words  and 
music.  They  set  their  course  by  sweet  melody.  They 
derive  inspiration  and  moral  sustenance  from  all  their 
silver-tongued. 

After  all,  there  is  an  ineradicable  and  fundamental 
difference  between  a  Democrat  and  a  Republican.  It 
goes  deeper  than  any  difference  over  political  and  cam- 
paign issues.  It  is  a  difference  of  temperament,  of 
habit,  of  thought,  of  attitude,  and  outlook  on  life.  It 
is  never  so  sharply  and  clearly  revealed  as  at  their  con- 
ventions and  their  national  committee  meetings. 

The  Democratic  National  Committee  was  called  to 
meet  at  Washington  to  select  a  place  of  meeting  for  the 
national  convention  and,  following  the  usual  custom, 
gave  a  dinner  in  the  evening,  which  the  Democrats  pre- 
fer to  call  a  "  banquet."  It  befell  as  ordered,  but, in  order 
to  accommodate  all  of  the  multitude,  melody-thirsty 
and  music-loving,  two  dinners  had  to  be  held  simulta- 


42  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

neously  in  two  hotels,  with  a  "staggered  "  list  of  twelve 
speakers.  As  soon  as  a  speaker  had  finished  at  one 
banquet,  he  was  hastened  to  the  other  to  repeat  his 
performance.  Thus  it  came  about  that  these  devoted 
people  sat  under  a  steady  deluge  and  torrent  of  oratory 
from  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  until  close  on  to  three 
o'clock  the  following  morning.  During  this  whole  time 
they  sat  under  a  roaring  torrent  and  downpour  of  more 
or  less  incandescent  words.  And  the  incredible  fact  is 
to  be  recorded  that  they  left  refreshed  and  stimulated. 
All  the  famous  troubadours  of  the  party  came  from 
far  and  near.  Of  these  Mr.  Bryan  is  easily  the  chief. 
Like  that  other  great  singer  who  preceded  him  in  the 
golden  age  of  the  troubadours,  Raimbaut  d'Aurenga, 
he  could  describe  himself  as  "young-hearted,  fresh, 
and  in  perfect  health"  ;  and  I  for  one  found  him  hard 
to  resist  when  he  bade  the  jongleurs  strike  up  a  lively 
air  and  began  his  latest  song : 

With  wits  refreshed  and  fresh  desire, 
With  knowledge  fresh  and  freshened  fire, 
In  fine  fresh  style,  that  ne'er  will  tire, 
A  good  fresh  poem  I'll  begin; 
My  fresh  new  verses  will  inspire 
Fresh  life  in  every  knight  and  squire, 
And  freshen  pulses  old  and  thin ! 

As  he  stood  there  in  the  eddying  tobacco  smoke,  fac- 
ing a  none  too  friendly  crowd,  I,  his  detached  and  long- 
time chronicler,  knew  that  he  meant  to  fare  forth  again 
among  the  constituencies  and  hoped  that  again  I  might 
be  with  him.  Like  Cceur  de  Lion,  he  is  a  born  traveler. 


BRYAN  43 

He  finds  refreshment  and  uplift  in  wayfaring  along  the 
open  road  ;  in  the  roar  and  bustle  of  arrival  and  depar- 
ture at  small  towns  where  his  coming  and  going  is  an 
event ;  the  applause  of  friendly  audiences,  and  the 
freedom  from  restraint. 

The  world,  as  is  well  known,  goes  round  and  round, 
and  thus  it  comes  about  that  all  sorts  of  things  recur. 
The  Marquis  Albert  of  Malaspina,  back  in  the  golden 
ages,  publicly  taunted  the  great  Raimbaut :  "Tell  me, 
Raimbaut,  if  it  please  you :  Is  it  a  fact  that  the  lady 
you  have  been  singing  so  much  to  has  jilted  you, 
as  people  say?"  And  Raimbaut  was  able  to  sing: 
"Though  love  desert  me,  I  will  achieve  all  the  good  I 
can  ;  though  I  lose  my  lady,  I  will  not  lose  my  fame  and 
talent"  ;  and  he  sang  again  of  his  future  and  the  battles 
to  come : 

In  heat  and  cold,  to  come  and  go, 
To  trot  and  gallop,  run  and  leap, 
To  toil  and  suffer,  scarce  to  sleep,  — 
This  is  the  life  I'm  now  to  know; 
My  inn  the  roadside  or  the  grove  at  best, 
With  iron  and  steel  and  ashen  spear  oppressed, 
With  stern  sirvente  instead  of  love  and  song, 
The  weak  will  I  defend  against  the  strong. 

His  voice  was  as  limpid  and  as  melodic  as  ever.  He 
had  had  a  hair-cut  before  dinner  and  his  locks  no  longer 
curled  upward  at  the  ends.  It  made  him  look  younger. 
He  made  the  "parade"  of  candidates  look  thin  and 
unreal.  He  dominated  the  whole  gathering  of  the 
Democrats. 


44  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Now  who  do  you  suppose  said  this  about  our  hero  ? 
"Not  only  have  Mr.  Bryan's  character,  his  justice,  his 
sincerity,  his  transparent  integrity,  his  Christian  prin- 
ciple, made  a  deep  impression  upon  all  with  whom  he 
has  dealt ;  but  his  tact  in  dealing  with  men  of  many 
sorts,  his  capacity  for  business,  his  mastery  of  the 
principle  of  each  matter  he  has  been  called  upon  to 
deal  with,  have  cleared  away  many  a  difficulty. ...  I 
cannot  say  what  pleasure  and  profit  I,  myself,  have 
taken  from  close  association  with  Mr.  Bryan  or  how 
thoroughly  he  has  seemed  to  all  of  us  who  are  associ- 
ated with  him  here  to  deserve  not  only  our  confidence, 
but  our  affectionate  admiration." 

That  was  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson, 
who  did  not  bestow  his  commendation  lightly.  No 
more  reserved,  no  more  cautious,  no  more  reticent,  no 
man  with  so  much  of  the  Scotch  quality  of  canniness, 
has  lived  in  the  White  House  in  the  lifetime  of  this 
generation. 

So  far  as  is  ascertainable  to  the  lay  student  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  mental  reaches  and  their  tributaries,  bayous, 
and  lagoons,  he  never  changed  his  mind  about  any- 
thing, except  the  initiative  and  referendum  and  Wil- 
liam J.  Bryan,  since  he  became  a  grown  man  and 
began  to  have  matured  convictions  and  opinions.  He 
became  a  convert  to  both  these  great  natural  forces  in 
political  life  after  coming  into  contact  with  their  work- 
ings. He  discovered  the  virtues  of  the  initiative  and 
referendum  when  he  went  out  into  the  Northwest  and 


BRYAN  45 

visited  Oregon- and  Washington.  Mr.  Bryan  was  rather 
wished  on  Mr.  Wilson  by  the  severe  and  inexorable 
logic  of  the  political  situation  growing  out  of  the  Balti- 
more convention.  After  Mr.  Wilson  was  elected  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  make  Mr.  Bryan  Secretary 
of  State. 

Mr.  Bryan's  competency,  his  ability,  his  conduct  as 
the  head  of  our  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs,  his 
appointments  to  the  diplomatic  corps  and  his  efficiency 
as  an  administrator  of  departmental  business  and 
routine,  are  not  under  scrutiny  here.  Being  Secretary 
of  State  was  in  the  beginning  the  smallest  part  of  Mr. 
Bryan's  business  and  the  least  important  aspect  of  his 
rvalue  to  the  Wilson  administration.  He  will  not  rank 
With  Madison,  Monroe,  Daniel  Webster,  John  Hay,  or 
Elihu  Root  as  a  Secretary  of  State.  His  dispatches  will 
not  be  used  in  after  years  as  models  for  aspiring  young 
diplomatists.  But  his  usefulness  was  in  no  way  abated 
by  his  failure  to  rise  to  the  heights  of  some  of  his 
famous  predecessors  in  the  Department  of  State.  Mr. 
Bryan  was  indispensable  to  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  making 
of  the  Tariff  Bill  and  the  Currency  Bill.  Everybody 
remarked  about  the  Currency  Bill  that  the  wonder 
was,  not  that  so  much  that  was  good  was  put  into  it, 
but  that  so  much  that  was  bad  was  kept  out  of  it. 
Much  of  the  keeping  out  was  Mr.  Bryan's  work. 

Mr.  Bryan  subdued  the  heathen  that  imagine  vain 
things.  And  he  did  it  all  quietly  and  without  seeking  to 
make  himself  appear  a  moving  factor  in  the  situation. 


46  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

As  persons  know  who  were  in  Washington  through  the 
first  summer  of  the  Wilson  regime,  when  the  Tariff  Bill 
and  the  Currency  Bill  were  in  the  making,  Mr.  Bryan's 
ante-room  was  crowded  day  by  day  with  members  and 
with  others  from  the  hinterland,  eager  for  a  sign.  They 
wanted  Mr.  Bryan  to  give  the  bills  his  blessing.  They 
wanted  to  know  about  this  and  that  provision.  Mr. 
Bryan  talked  with  all  of  them  and  told  them  what  they 
came  to  find  out.  They  could  not  all  see  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  most  of  them  would  have  been  extremely  uncom- 
fortable in  his  presence,  but  they  felt  they  knew  Bryan. 
He  belonged  to  their  tribe  and  talked  their  language. 
They  had  been  to  the  wars  together  before. 

Washington,  for  the  most  part,  wholly  misappre- 
hended Mr.  Bryan.  It  regarded  him  solely  as  Secretary 
of  State  and  applied  to  him  the  standards  of  conduct 
and  deportment  that  have  come  to  be  regarded  as 
standards  of  that  office.  Social  Washington  and  much 
of  political  Washington  did  not  know  of  Mr.  Bryan's 
activities  outside  of  the  State  Department.  They  heard 
of  his  simple  friendliness  and  the  informality  of  his  dis- 
course with  diplomats,  and,  having  artificial  standards 
and  perhaps  in  many  instances  false  standards,  they 
were  made  ashamed.  I  found  that  the  sneers  at  Mr. 
Bryan  were  by  no  means  reflected  by  the  understanding 
members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  stationed  here.  Some 
of  the  ambassadors  rather  went  out  of  the  way  to  ex- 
press their  admiration  of  Mr.  Bryan's  simplicity,  of  his 
absolute  candor,  of  the  sincerity  he  showed  in  official 


BRYAN  47 

intercourse.  They  saw  that  he  was  a  dreamer,  an 
idealist ;  that  his  heart  runs  away  with  his  head  ;  that 
he  was  lacking  in  guile ;  that  he  spoke  to  them  truth- 
fully ;  and  these  qualities  they  appreciated  because 
they  are  so  rare  in  their  experience  with  more  sophisti- 
cated foreign  offices. 

Mr.  Bryan  came  to  the  office  too  late  in  life  to  ac- 
quire reputation  as  a  great  Department  chief,  as  an 
administrator  and  an  executive.  He  depended  too 
much  on  inspiration.  He  saw  too  many  people  to  allow 
him  the  proper  time  to  attend  to  the  details  of  his  office. 
Prior  to  being  Secretary  of  State  he  had  never  had  any 
executive  experience.  Every  office  of  foreign  affairs 
is  a  hive  of  concrete  details,  of  precedents.  Almost 
every  case  that  comes  up  has  a  history.  Present  deci- 
sions are  influenced  and  limited  and  to  a  degree  deter- 
mined by  a  policy  laid  down  by  some  other  Secretary 
of  State  who  may  have  been  dead  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. Mr.  Bryan  did  not  withhold  the  time  to  himself 
to  withdraw  from  the  daily  hurly-burly  and  coolly 
review  and  master  the  essentials  of  important  prob- 
lems that  confronted  his  Department.  It  is  revealing 
no  secret  to  say  that  President  Wilson  did  that  for  him. 

Mr.  Bryan  winced  and  became  restive  under  the 
criticism  he  received.  Some  of  it  cut  him  to  the  quick. 
The  continued  charges  that  he  was  unable  to  compre- 
hend the  business  of  the  State  Department,  that  he 
did  not  know  what  was  going  on  under  his  nose,  that 
he  did  not  read  the  dispatches,  and  that,  reading  them, 


48  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

he  could  not  understand  them,  particularly  hurt  Mr. 
Bryan.  He  resented  this  criticism  far  more  than  the 
popular  disapproval  that  was  visited  upon  his  diplo- 
matic appointments.  On  the  face  of  it,  it  seems  proba- 
ble that  Mr.  Wilson  knew  of  Mr.  Bryan's  state  of  mind 
and  sought  to  alleviate  his  mortification  when  he  wrote 
a  letter  giving  specific  commendation  to  Mr.  Bryan's 
capacity  for  business,  he  having  "given  to  the  policy 
of  the  State  Department  a  definiteness  and  dignity 
that  are  very  admirable."  This  was  by  no  means  the 
Washington  verdict  on  Mr.  Bryan's  first  year  in  office, 
but  it  was  Mr.  Wilson's,  and  there  was  no  occasion 
for  him  to  say  it  unless  he  chose  to  say  it. 

Anyhow,  Mr.  Bryan  was  as  useful  and  effective  as 
any  Secretary  of  State  that  Mr.  Wilson  had  during  his 
eight  years.  That,  I  concede,  is  not  saying  much.  In 
office  Mr.  Bryan  is  a  caged  bird  and  can't  sing.  And 
he  must  sing.  For  he  is  a  true  troubadour  and  not  a 
double-entry  bookkeeper. 


JOHNSON:  A  HERALD  WITH  TRUMPET 

IN  our  time  there  have  been  just  three  national  politi- 
cal leaders ;  true,  natural  leaders  not  dependent  upon 
organizations  or  the  political  situation,  or  (as  they  are 
called),  issues ;  who  made  their  own  issues  as  the  season 
and  the  opportunity  offered.  I  mean  men  with  national 
personal  followings.  Men  who  could  command  an 
appreciable  number  of  votes  on  any  national  question 
on  whatever  side  they  chose  to  take. 

You  can  have  no  doubt  about  their  identity :  Wil- 
liam J.  Bryan,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Woodrow  Wilson. 
Can  you  think  of  another  since  Grover  Cleveland,  and, 
before  Cleveland,  Abraham  Lincoln?  Would  you  in- 
clude Ulysses  S.  Grant?  I  would  not. 

Indeed,  I  suspect  there  are  those  who  are  doubtful 
about  the  rightful  inclusion  of  Mr.  Wilson.  He  came  to 
his  authority  and  leadership  in  the  presidency.  It  was 
not  a  natural  growth.  Being  in  the  White  House  was  a 
tremendous  accessory  to  the  fact.  But  he  must  be  in- 
cluded by  courtesy  if  not  by  right.  Roosevelt  was 
helped,  too,  by  being  President,  but  not  enough  to 
impair  the  validity  of  his  natural  leadership,  and  he  did 
not  lose  his  personal  following  when  he  lost  office. 
There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  about  Bryan.  The 
"Bryan  vote"  from  1896  to  1912  was  as  solid,  as 
patent,  as  obvious,  as  overwhelming  a  factor  in  politics 


50  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

as  existed  in  this  land.  It  had  to  be  reckoned  with  and 
taken  into  account. 

Now,  Hiram  Johnson  bids  fair  to  join  the  ranks  of 
these  three  and  become  a  recognized  national  political 
leader  with  a  clearly  denned  personal  following.  The 
Johnson  vote  is  smaller  and  less  compact  and  less  a 
factor,  but  it  exists,  though  to  a  degree  formless  and 
still  in  the  making.  Both  Johnson  and  Bryan  derive 
whatever  power  and  authority  they  possess  directly 
from  the  electors  without  the  aid  of  any  intermediaries 
or  organization.  Their  followings  are  a  natural  growth, 
first  acquired  and  then  cultivated.  They  have  gone 
directly  to  first  sources  for  their  warrant  of  authority. 
They  have  each  sought  to  be  President,  and,  while 
their  method  of  approach  has  been  the  same  and 
placed  on  the  same  general  plan  of  direct  appeal,  their 
execution  and  technique  have  been  wholly  unlike. 

If  Mr.  Bryan  is  a  troubadour  and  a  silver  tongue, 
Mr.  Johnson  is  a  herald  with  a  trumpet.  He  is  mili- 
tant. He  summons  to  arms.  He  blows  a  blast  outside 
the  walls  of  Jericho,  and  if  the  walls  do  not  fall  he  uses 
a  battering-ram.  Like  any  knight  errant  he  is  always 
ready  to  tilt  a  joust  against  any  one  who  does  not  mea- 
sure up  to  his  ideas  of  a  champion  of  the  public  weal. 

Hiram  Johnson  is  a  bold,  forthright  questing  man. 
He  wants  to  be  President  of  the  United  States.  He 
believes  he  has  the  courage,  the  intelligence,  the  ex- 
perience, the  qualities  of  mind  and  character  —  the 
general  fitness  to  be  the  Chief  Executive  of  this  nation. 


Copyright  by  Harris  tf  String 

SENATOR  HIRAM  W.  JOHNSON 


JOHNSON  51 

His  problem  is  to  find  out  how  many  of  us  agree  with 
him.  He  offered  himself  for  the  nomination  in  1920 
and  failed. 

Being  nominated  for  President  and  being  elected 
President  are  two  totally  different  processes.  The 
nomination  is  controlled  in  great  degree  by  the  party 
organization.  The  election  is  decided  by  popular  vote. 
To  be  nominated  a  candidate  must  have  an  organiza- 
tion of  his  own  and  plenty  of  money  to  spend.  Dele- 
gate-hunting as  practiced  among  us  is  the  most  costly 
of  all  outdoor  sports. 

The  presidential  primaries  in  some  of  the  States 
have  made  possible  such  lone-hand  candidacies  as 
Hiram  Johnson's.  State  primary  laws  made  possible 
his  two  elections  as  Governor  and  his  choice  as  Senator 
from  California.  These  same  laws  make  possible  for 
him  another  trial  for  the  presidency.  The  campaign 
of  1920  was  Johnson's  first  defeat  at  the  head  of  a 
ticket.  My  own  guess  is  that  he  will  not  accept  that 
verdict  as  final. 

Now  what  sort  of  a  man  is  this  Hiram  Warren  John- 
son? Let's  walk  up  close  and  look  at  him.  I  went  to 
California  on  this  quest.  I  sought  the  verdict  of  the 
vicinage.  If  the  people  of  his  native  State  were  not 
for  him,  I  knew  he  had  no  chance  of  impressing  him- 
self on  the  nation.  It  may  be  said  at  once  that  Cali- 
fornia supports  Johnson.  The  State  believes  in  him. 

In  my  innocence  I  thought  it  would  be  a  simple 
thing  to  draw  a  picture  of  Hiram  Johnson.  Here,  one 


52  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

said  to  oneself,  is  a  big,  breezy,  colorful,  picturesque 
personality  against  a  Western  background.  He  must 
figure  in  scores  of  good  anecdotes.  It  will  be  as  easy  to 
write  about  him  as  it  would  be  about  T.  R.  All  one  has 
to  do  is  to  go  out  and  get  it.  Even  arriving  at  Sacra- 
mento on  a  rainy  Sunday  did  not  blur  these  bright 
imaginings.  Then  to  the  telephone  only  to  discover 
that  Johnson  was  in  San  Francisco.  Oh,  well,  it  is  a 
rainy  day  and  we  will  make  a  start  bright  and  early 
Monday  morning. 

Monday  morning.  Now  for  the  flying  start.  We  are 
in  the  back  room  of  Colonel  Snook's  real  estate  office. 
The  doors  are  closed,  but  not  before  the  Colonel  had 
told  the  boy  outside  to  "tell  'em  all  I'm  out."  Business 
of  lighting  cigars  and  settling  down  for  a  closed  session. 
"Now,  tell  me  all  about  Johnson.  What  sort  of  a  fel- 
low he  is.  Everything  you  know  about  him." 

The  Colonel  and  Johnson  went  to  school  together. 
They  have  been  close  friends  ever  since  they  were 
seven  or  eight  years  old.  But  Colonel  Snook  was 
Number  One  on  the  list  of  inarticulate  emotionalists 
belonging  to  the  great  Johnson-I-Knew-Him-When 
Club  in  California.  He  got  under  way  slowly. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "Johnson  is  certainly  the  best  two- 
fisted  fighting  man  I  ever  knew.  He  is  a  real  scrapper. 
He  certainly  has  run  true  to  form.  There  is  a  man  who 
won't  look  for  trouble,  but  who  never  dodges  it.  But 
you  ought  to  talk  to  a  friend  of  his  down  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. He  is  a  lawyer  down  there.  I'll  give  you  his 


JOHNSON  53 

name.  He  knows  a  lot  about  Johnson.  Or  you  ought 
to  go  over  to  the  City  Library  and  talk  to  Ripley,  who 
was  in  school  with  the  Governor  and  who  ought  to 
have  some  good  stories.  Come  back  and  see  me  again. 
Maybe  I'll  think  of  something." 

And  now  to  the  Library  to  see  Mr.  Ripley :  "Yes,  I 
have  known  the  Governor  ever  since  he  was  a  boy. 
He  used  to  live  in  the  house  right  across  the  street 
there.  He  certainly  is  a  fighter.  I  do  not  mean  that  he 
is  a  bully  or  seeks  trouble,  but  he  was  always  willing  to 
fight.  He  is  just  the  same  as  a  man  that  he  was  as  a 
boy." 

"Yes,"  one  added  persuasively ;  "you  must  know  a 
lot  of  good  stories  about  him.  Tell  them  to  me." 

"I  think  you  had  better  go  over  to  the  'Bee'  office 
and  talk  with  the  editor.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  tell 
you  lots  of  things  that  would  be  interesting." 

Three  blocks  down  the  main  street,  two  blocks  to 
the  right,  up  the  stairs,  and  one  finds  the  young  lady 
at  the  switchboard  in  the  Sacramento  "Bee"  office. 
"Is  the  editor  in?"  one  asked  in  the  Eastern  voice. 
"Do  you  mean  C.  K. ?"  said  the  damsel  brightly. 
"I  think  he's  at  home.  I  will  ring  him  up  and  see." 
She  punched  at  the  switchboard,  as  they  do,  and 
presently  asked:  "Is  C.  K.  there?"  He  was,  but  be- 
fore one  went  out  to  see  him  one  ventured  to  ask: 
"Why  do  you  call  him  C.  K.  ?" 

"Because  that  is  his  name,"  she  said ;  but  the  ques- 
tion puzzled  her. 


54  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

C.  K.  began :  "He  certainly  is  a  good  fighting  man. 
Johnson  never  was  afraid  of  a  scrap." 

"How  about  a  good  anecdote  or  two?" 

"Well,  have  you  seen  Colonel  Snook  or  Ripley  over 
at  the  Library?" 

The  circle  was  complete.  It  was  time  for  lunch.  One 
had  received  the  fixed  impression  that  Johnson  was  a 
fighter.  Conceive  this  process  repeated  again  and 
again,  until  one  of  Johnson's  bitterest  opponents  gave 
the  sought-for  clue.  The  query  was  put  this  way: 
"What  about  Johnson?  He  seems  to  be  able  to  put 
over  almost  anything  in  this  State.  How  does  he  get 
away  with  it?" 

"Well,  I  will  tell  you.  He  certainly  is  one  of  the  best 
fight—" 

"Yes,  yes,"  one  interrupted,  "that  is  established. 
But  isn't  there  anything  else  to  him  ?" 

"Well" —  slowly  — "when  he  says  he  is  going  to  do 
a  thing  he  does  it.  When  he  starts  out  on  anything  he 
never  lets  go  until  he  carries  it  through.  When  he 
makes  a  promise  he  keeps  it.  He  has  kept  every 
promise  he  has  made  to  the  people  of  this  State.  He 
has  done  everything  that  he  told  them  he  would  do, 
and  now  they  trust  him  and  believe  in  him  absolutely." 

That  gave  me  a  basis,  so  I  went  to  the  Senator  from 
California  to  find  out  what  he  thought  about  himself. 

He  has  a  square  jaw  and  a  clear,  gray  eye.  It  is  full 
of  light  and  fire  and  vigor.  His  hair,  too,  is  gray,  and 
he  has  plenty  of  it.  It  is  stiff  and  short  and  always 


JOHNSON  55 

stays  parted.  There  is  nothing  breezy,  colorful,  or 
picturesque  about  him ;  nothing  high,  wide,  and  care- 
less. He  is  just  serious  and  purposeful. 

Johnson  told  me  at  once  :  "  If  you  are  going  to  write 
about  me,  you  won't  have  to  go  back  of  1910.  Before 
that  time  I  was  either  in  school  or  wearing  a  path  be- 
tween my  house  and  my  office.  I  spent  my  days  at  my 
desk  or  in  the  courts,  and  when  I  got  through  work  in 
the  afternoon  I  went  home  and  stayed  until  it  was 
time  to  go  to  work  again  next  morning.  The  years 
since  1910  are  all  of  my  life.  My  real  life  began  when 
I  was  given  an  opportunity  to  quit  working  for  myself 
and  begin  working  for  the  people  of  the  State." 

But  before  I  get  down  to  the  business  of  disclosing 
the  basis  on  which  Johnson  has  erected  himself  and 
become  in  turn  Governor,  United  States  Senator,  and 
presidential  possibility,  I  must  tell  the  one  Hiram 
Johnson  anecdote  in  existence.  For  I  found  it  at  last. 
I  pass  it  on  as  I  received  it.  Whether  it  is  told  by  the 
oldest  inhabitant  or  the  youngest  reporter  I  cannot 
determine.  The  narrative  styles  of  the  two  are  so  alike. 
But  I  found  it  in  the  Sacramento  "Bee"  of  Novem- 
ber 7,  1916.  Here  it  is: 

"Do  you  remember  the  time  when  General  Grant 
visited  Sacramento  on  his  return  from  a  trip  around 
the  world  and  was  given  a  great  ovation  in  front  of  the 
State  Capitol?" 

"The  address  of  welcome  was  delivered  by  Henry 
Edgerton,  the  grandest  orator  of  his  day,  whose  elo- 


56  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

quent  recital  of  the  General's  life  calls  to  mind  the 
subsequent  but  no  more  magnificent  epitome  of  the 
career  of  Napoleon  by  Robert  Ingersoll. 

"Grant  and  W.  H.  Mills  visited  school,  and  the 
teachers  were  in  a  quandary  about  a  proper  welcome. 

"All  but  one  threw  up  their  hands  in  despair,  de- 
claring they  had  no  pupil  prepared  for  such  an  emer- 
gency. That  one  was  Miss  Jessie  McMenomy,  of  the 
Sacramento  Grammar  School,  now  Mrs.  N.  E.  White. 

4<<I  have  a  lad  in  my  class,'  said  she,  'who  can  al- 
ways be  depended  on  to  meet  an  emergency.  Hiram 
Johnson  is  not  afraid  to  face  the  great  man.' 

"And  do  you  remember  how  the  world's  great  mili- 
tary chieftain  —  stolid  though  his  nature  —  displayed 
much  difficulty  in  suppressing  his  emotion  during 
young  Hiram's  spirited  recital  of  'Sheridan's  Ride,' 
and  how  his  voice  trembled  as  he  openly  complimented 
the  lad  on  his  forensic  ability  ? 

"'Hiram,'  said  his  teacher  as  the  former  returned  to 
his  seat,  '  I  prophesy  there  are  many  here  to-day  who 
will  yet  see  you  standing  in  General  Grant's  shoes.' 

"And  that  prophecy  bids  fair  to  be  realized." 

Read  it  over  again.  It  is  a  perfect  model.  It  rigidly 
conforms  to  every  convention.  I  cannot  for  a  moment 
accept  Senator  Johnson's  disclaimer  that  it  is  not  true  ; 
that  he  never  made  a  speech  to  General  Grant.  Be- 
sides, he  is  the  only  person  I  could  find  in  Sacramento 
who  didn't  believe  the  story,  and  if  it  is  not  true  it 
ought  to  be. 


JOHNSON  57 

Johnson  is  bursting  with  energy  and  vitality ;  he  is 
always  under  high  pressure  ;  he  is  dominant,  masterful, 
impatient  of  restraint,  demandful  for  what  he  believes 
to  be  right ;  "  a  born  leader,"  as  the  dear  old  phrase  has 
it.  He  is  pugnacious,  always  a  fighter,  and  incapable 
of  using  "moral  suasion."  Finally,  he  is  as  independ- 
ent as  a  wood  sawyer's  clerk.  As  might  be  expected 
with  these  qualities,  he  is  a  good  hater.  You  are  either 
his  friend  or  his  enemy.  There  is  no  middle  ground. 
The  people  of  California,  among  whom  he  has  lived  all 
his  life,  either  praise  him  to  the  skies  or  denounce  him 
in  terms  that  if  printed  would  scorch  the  begonias. 

Hiram  Johnson  is  a  Native  Son.  He  was  born  at 
Sacramento,  September  2,  1866,  and  educated  in  the 
public  schools  there.  He  was  twelve  years  old  when  he 
told  General  Grant  how  Sheridan  saved  the  day  by 
coming  up  from  Winchester  twenty  miles  away,  and  he 
was  seventeen  years  old  when  he  was  graduated  from 
the  Sacramento  High  School.  He  learned  shorthand 
and  spent  a  year  in  his  father's  law  office  as  a  ste- 
nographer. At  eighteen  he  entered  the  University  of 
California  in  the  Class  of  '88,  but  left  in  the  middle  of 
his  junior  year  to  marry.  He  was  then  just  twenty 
years  old. 

From  the  time  he  was  married  until  he  was  thirty-six 
years  old  Johnson  practiced  law  in  Sacramento  with 
his  father  and  his  brother  Albert.  He  was  interested  in 
politics  and  for  a  time  was  city  attorney.  In  the  hope 
of  increasing  his  practice  and  his  income,  Johnson 


58  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

removed  to  San  Francisco  in  1902  with  his  brother. 
They  soon  dissolved  partnership  and  Hiram  went  it 
alone.  He  seems  to  get  on  better  that  way.  He  estab- 
lished a  successful  practice  in  San  Francisco.  He  was 
called  one  of  the  best  jury  lawyers  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Johnson  has  one  outstanding  endearing  quality.  He 
doesn't  value  money.  "Why,  if  we  didn't  watch  him," 
one  of  his  associates  told  me,  "he  would  start  East  with 
only  six  dollars  in  his  pocket."  Simply  he  looks  upon 
money  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  and  not  as  something 
to  be  hoarded  and  sweated  over.  His  personal  habits 
are  of  the  simplest.  He  spends  his  evenings  at  home  or 
at  the  movie  shows.  He  is  perhaps  the  most  inveterate 
movie  fan  in  the  country  to-day.  He  knows  the  names 
of  all  the  movie  actors  and  actresses,  and  can  tell  you 
what  parts  they  have  played. 

He  told  me  that  he  started  going  to  the  movies  as  a 
refuge.  The  picture  theaters  being  dark,  he  could 
spend  an  hour  or  two  without  being  seen  and  pestered. 
They  offered  a  means  of  escape  from  importunities. 
But  now  he  goes  to  them  because  he  likes  them.  Also, 
he  is  a  domino-player  of  renown  —  "the  best  domino- 
player  in  the  world,"  a  Sacramento  friend  told  me 
gravely. 

Johnson  was  not  associated  with  the  beginning  of  the 
reform  movement  in  California.  He  was  practicing 
law  in  San  Francisco  when  it  began.  Prior  to  1910 
California  was  in  an  evil  plight  —  machine-ridden. 
The  fight  to  free  the  State  began  with  a  group  of  men 


JOHNSON  59 

in  municipal  elections  in  the  south.  The  first  real 
advance  was  made  when  a  direct  primary  law  was 
passed.  This  gave  the  little  group  of  men  who  had 
organized  to  lift  California  out  of  the  mire  their  oppor- 
tunity. They  cast  about  for  a  fighter  to  lead  their 
cause.  They  wanted  a  man  of  fire,  of  energy,  with 
clean  hands,  and  free  from  entangling  alliances,  who 
could  make  an  appeal  direct  to  the  people.  They  de- 
cided that  Johnson  was  such  a  man.  The  moral  im- 
pulse in  his  character  had  led  him  to  take  a  vigorous 
interest  in  public  affairs.  He  was  a  man  who  took  fire 
at  an  idea.  He  had  made  himself  known  all  over  the 
State  by  his  participation  in  the  graft  cases.  He  was 
sought  out  and  solicited  to  run  as  Republican  candi- 
date for  Governor  at  the  August,  1910,  primaries.  The 
so-called  Lincoln- Roosevelt  Republican  League  was 
organized  to  endorse  his  candidacy.  After  some  hesi- 
tation, Johnson  accepted.  That  was  his  start.  Since 
that  he  has  been  twice  elected  Governor  and  once 
United  States  Senator,  each  time  by  largely  increased 
pluralities,  and  has  been  a  candidate  for  Vice- President 
of  the  United  States,  and  finally  a  strong  contender  for 
nomination  for  the  presidency.  Certainly  an  astonish- 
ing eleven-year  record. 

Now  you  know  as  much  about  him  as  I  do.  He  is  a 
man  of  quick  sympathies  and  sensitive  to  praise  or 
blame.  Politicians  should  have  thick  hides  to  be  at 
ease.  Johnson  is  not  pachydermatous.  He  is  sensitive, 
he  is  modest,  and  he  is  diffident.  He  can  be  quickly 


60  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

inflamed.  He  is  just  fifty-five  years  old  now  and  in  the 
prime  of  his  vigor.  What  he  will  make  of  himself  in 
the  coming  ten  years  is  one  of  the  interesting  specula- 
tions in  our  national  politics. 

I  don't  think  he  will  ever  settle  down  to  a  routine. 
Not,  at  any  rate,  while  his  emotions  are  so  quickly 
alive  and  he  is  so  ready  to  throw  himself  into  any  fray 
where  the  issue  appeals  to  his  sense  of  justice.  He  is 
not  a  canny  or  a  cautious  or  a  moderate  man.  And 
looking,  I  suspect,  is  the  thing  he  would  think  least 
about  before  leaping. 

Whether  he  can  find  a  national  market  for  his  politi- 
cal product,  I  don't  know.  Colonel  Roosevelt,  who  was 
one  of  the  shrewdest  politicians,  sensed  this  defect  and 
touched  upon  it  lightly  in  a  letter  he  wrote  in  1916. 
He  said:  "I  genuinely  believe  that  if  the  East  could 
understand  Johnson,  we  could  get  the  Republicans  to 
nominate  him ;  but,  good  Lord,  we  are  a  parochial 
people,  and  it  is  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  get 
the  people  of  one  section,  whether  it  is  the  Mississippi 
Valley  or  the  Rocky  Mountains  States  or  the  Middle 
West  or  the  East,  really  to  understand  what  another 
section  such  as  the  Coast  is  doing.  Indeed,  it  is  not  too 
easy  to  get  Oregon  and  Washington  to  understand 
what  California  is  doing." 

If  Johnson  can  impress  himself  upon  the  East  as  he 
has  upon  California  the  rest  will  be  easy,  but  until  he 
does  — 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS 

CONCEIVE,  if  you  will,  the  Honorable  Bourke  Cockran, 
freshly  come  again  to  the  House  after  a  long  absence, 
rising  in  his  place  on  a  hot  summer  afternoon  and 
making  sonorous  lamentation : 

"How  many  of  the  members  around  me  now  are 
known  to  the  country  at  large  ?  I  repeat  this  question 
with  mournful  realization  that  the  answer  cannot 
inspire  us.  with  pride  in  the  situation." 

The  experienced  old  silver-tongue  with  a  sure  in- 
stinct had  hit  upon  the  one  topic  that  members  of 
Congress  never  tire  of  talking  about.  They  listened 
while  he  recited  the  story  of  their  wrongs.  Let  us,  too, 
draw  near  the  lodge  of  sorrow  and  hear  him  booming 
his  doleful  cadences : 

"When  I  came  to  this  House  in  the  Fiftieth  Congress 
reports  and  descriptions  of  our  proceedings  occupied 
the  front  page  of  every  newspaper  in  America.  When  I 
returned  to  the  Fifty-Eighth  Congress,  after  an  ab- 
sence of  eight  years,  I  found  that  the  space  allotted  to 
us  in  the  newspapers  had  shrunk  to  about  a  column. 
I  return  now,  after  an  absence  of  twelve  years,  and 
find  we  have  no  place  at  all.  Accounts  of  our  proceed- 
ings are  not  accorded  in  the  newspapers  to-day  as 
much  space  as  a  ball  given  by  a  fashionable  woman. 

"Recall  to  mind  the  names  of  a  few  among  the 


62  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

men  who  were  conspicuous  in  the  Fiftieth  Congress, 
and  who  would  not,  I  believe,  have  exchanged  their 
prominence  here  for  any  other  place  in  the  whole 
world  ?  —  John  G.  Carlisle,  Roger  Q.  Mills,  the  two 
Breckinridges,  William  L.  Wilson,  Benton  McMillan, 
on  this  side.  On  that  side,  Thomas  B.  Reed.  I  may 
mention  also  William  McKinley.  And  I  could  run 
through  a  long  list  of  names  famous  in  our  history. 

"Why  has  this  House  shrunk  so  low  in  public 
esteem  ?  Why  are  our  proceedings  no  longer  important 
enough  to  obtain  even  mention  in  the  newspapers? 
Why  are  gentlemen,  as  soon  as  they  reach  a  conspicu- 
ous place  here,  ready  to  give  up  that  which  formerly 
was  the  dearest  aspiration  of  genius  and  patriotism 
in  order  to  seek  elsewhere  success  which  they  consider 
more  valuable  and  more  creditable? 

"It  was  upon  this  floor  and  in  this  House  that  the 
reputations  were  established  of  the  greatest  political 
leaders  in  our  history.  Not  one  was  ever  established 
in  the  Senate.  Not  in  the  Senate,  but  in  the  House, 
did  Henry  Clay  win  the  renown  upon  which  his  au- 
thority rested.  Here  also  did  James  G.  Blaine  acquire 
the  popularity  which  made  mention  of  his  name  in  any 
Republican  gathering  an  occasion  for  demonstration 
of  affection  that  was  absolutely  rapturous. 

"Neither  Blaine  nor  Clay  ever  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  Presidency,  but  they  remained,  while  they 
lived,  the  idols,  objects  of  adoration  to  their  respective 
parties,  embracing  nearly  one  half  of  the  people.  I 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  63 

myself  saw  and  heard  William  J.  Bryan  emerge  by  a 
single  speech  on  the  floor  from  the  position  of  a  new 
and  unknown  member  to  a  degree  of  prominence  which 
led  to  his  nomination  three  times  for  the  Presidency 
and  to  the  domination  of  his  party  for  twenty  years. 

"Why  are  no  successors  to  these  giants  produced  by 
our  proceedings  now?  What  is  it  that  has  atrophied 
this  House  —  reduced  it  to  such  sterility  ?  I  have 
heard  it  said  that  the  reason  for  this  decline  of  the 
House  in  importance  is  a  decline  in  the  ability  of  its 
members.  Nothing,  in  my  judgment,  could  be  further 
from  the  truth.  I  have  known  the  House  for  thirty- 
four  years,  and  now  on  my  return,  after  an  absence  of 
twelve  years,  I  have  been  profoundly  impressed  and 
immensely  cheered  by  the  high  order  of  ability  dis- 
played in  debate  on  this  floor. 

"The  Senate  has  become  all-powerful.  The  House 
has  declined  till  it  is  a  negligible  quantity.  Is  this  an 
exaggeration  ?  What  effect  have  you  on  public  opinion 
to-day?  These  speeches  which  are  of  the  highest  ex- 
cellence —  which  in  other  days  would  have  been 
widely  read  —  are  nowhere  reported.  Not  even  the 
fact  that  they  were  delivered  is  mentioned  in  the  news- 
paper press. 

"And  why  should  it  be  otherwise  under  existing 
conditions  —  conditions  of  your  own  creation  —  for 
which  you  yourselves  are  responsible?  By  rules  and 
by  procedure  which  you  have  sanctioned  you  have  re- 
nounced and  thrown  away  the  power  which  the  Con- 


64  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

stitution  conferred  upon  you  and  upon  which  your 
consequence  depended." 

And  so  on  and  so  on  and  so  on.  Ever  since  I  have 
known  the  House,  it  has  been  asking,  why  aren't  we 
known,  why  aren't  our  speeches  printed,  why  can't  we 
be  great  men,  too,  like  the  giants  of  other  days  ?  And 
every  so  often  the  project  revives  for  a  Government 
newspaper  that  will  print  the  speeches  and  debates, 
but  nothing  comes  of  it.  Ten  days  after  Bourke  Cock- 
ran's  speech,  Albert  Johnson,  of  Washington,  who  used 
to  be  a  reporter,  recurred  to  the  subject  and  suggested 
that  many  an  American  schoolboy,  if  asked  to  define 
the  function  of  the  Roman  Senate,  would  be  tempted 
to  reply  that  the  institution  existed  for  the  purpose  of 
listening  to  the  speeches  of  Cicero.  "Perhaps,"  he 
added,  "that  is  what  Cicero  himself  thought."  Mr. 
Johnson  thought  the  House  was  a  more  efficient  legis- 
lative body  because  by  shutting  off  the  stream  of  talk 
the  members  have  been  able  to  perform  their  proper 
functions  as  a  great  governing  body.  He  conceded  that 
the  orators  enjoyed  the  mellifluous  sound  of  their  own 
voices,  but  said  bluntly  enough  that  they  were  no  help 
to  business. 

Whatever  the  cause,  it  remains  true  enough  that 
few  men  in  the  House  enjoy  a  national  reputation,  and 
that  a  man  can  be  a  member  of  Congress  for  years  and 
years,  attending  faithfully  to  his  business,  and  never 
become  known  outside  of  his  district,  or,  at  most,  his 
State.  They  all  may  have  been  useful,  effective  mem- 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  65 

bers  of  the  House,  each  in  his  own  way,  without  ever 
having  acquired  fame  or  a  wide  reputation. 

Fifty-six  members  of  the  present  House  have  served 
from  seven  to  twenty-three  two-year  terms ;  that  is, 
from  fourteen  to  forty-six  years.  They  have  been 
continuously  under  public  scrutiny  and  observation. 
How  many  of  them  do  you  know  ?  How  many  of  them 
can  you  even  name?  The  House  is  a  great  bulk  of 
unknown  figures. 

In  every  country  in  the  •  world  —  except  ours  — 
where  parliamentary  government  is  enjoyed,  the  war 
has  brought  to  the  fore  in  the  popular  assemblies  new 
men,  new  figures,  new  political  elements,  new  groups 
representing  new  ideas,  while  we  alone  have  reached 
back  to  the  old  standpat  days  —  what  the  politicians 
now  think  of  as  the  Dark  Ages  of  our  domestic  con- 
cerns —  and  resuscitated  a  group  of  conservative 
veterans.  They  represent,  even  in  the  estimation  of 
their  own  colleagues  and  party,  an  ancient  order  of 
things. 

I  stress  their  present  eminence  because  this  new 
country  presents  at  this  moment  parliamentary  leaders 
so  different  from  the  men  who  will  frame  legislation  in 
the  old  countries.  In  common  with  other  democracies 
we  have  a  strong  liking  for  the  rule  of  seniority  and 
order  of  precedence.  There  is  nothing  I  can  say  in  its 
favor.  It  is  responsible  for  the  present  organization  in 
the  House.  It  is  responsible  for  the  lack  of  new  figures 
and  new  fclopd  at  the  top.  It  enables  a  dull  and  medig- 


66  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

ere  Congressman,  coming  from  a  "safe  district,"  to 
remain  in  Washington  year  after  year,  to  rise  by  in- 
evitable processes  to  a  place  of  power  and  authority 
and  command.  It  made  Mr.  Claude  Kitchin,  of  Scot- 
land Neck,  North  Carolina,  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Ways  and  Means,  just  as,  in  due  course,  it 
has  made  Mr.  Fordney,  of  Michigan,  his  successor. 

Even  Mr.  Gillett,  of  Massachusetts,  the  Speaker, 
who  came  to  the  chair  following  a  protest  and  insur- 
rection on  the  part  of  the  Republicans  in  the  House 
against  naming  Mr.  Mann  for  that  honor,  could  not 
be  called  radical  or  restless  or  be  accused  of  deeply 
yearning  for  a  new  order  by  even  the  most  vivid 
imagination.  An  upright  and  able  man,  a  politician 
against  whom  no  charge  of  lack  of  interest  in  his 
country's  welfare  can  be  brought,  he  is  of  the  eminently 
conservative  and  safe  and  sane  type.  He  never  shared 
or  participated  or  aligned  himself  in  sympathy  or  in 
action  with  the  "insurgent  group"  in  the  Republican 
Party  that  first  dethroned  Cannon,  the  Speaker,  in  the 
House  and  at  the  same  time  pruned  the  speakership  of 
its  powers,  nor  was  he  in  open  sympathy  or  alliance 
with  the  little  group  of  five  so-called  "progressive" 
Senators  who  protested  so  courageously  and  with  such 
political  effect  against  the  Payne-Aldrich  tariff  bill. 
Through  all  the  years,  Mr.  Gillett  has  been  a  regular 
Republican. 

The  blessed  rule  of  seniority  is  responsible  for  the 
eminence  of  the  present  House  leaders.  There  is  noth- 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  67 

ing  to  be  said  in  its  favor.  The  House  of  Representa- 
tives does  its  business  through  committees.  Members 
of  the  House  attain  rank  and  power  and  influence  and 
position  in  the  organization  of  that  body  through  the 
character  of  their  committee  assignments.  What  may 
be  called  the  "good"  or  important  committees  are 
those  of  Ways  and  Means,  which  frames  tariff  bills  and 
other  revenue  measures ;  Appropriations,  which  has  to 
do  with  disbursements  of  public  moneys  from  the 
Treasury;  Military  Affairs,  Naval  Affairs,  Judiciary, 
Agriculture,  Post-Office  and  Post- Roads,  Public  Build- 
ings and  Grounds,  Rivers  and  Harbors,  and  Interstate 
and  Foreign  Commerce.  To  come  to  occupy  a  ranking 
and  powerful  position,  to  become  chairman  of  one  of 
these  committees,  a  member  of  the  House  has  so  to 
contrive  his  affairs  at  home  in  his  own  district  that  he 
remains  continuously  in  Congress. 

Mr.  Gillett,  Speaker,  has  been  in  Congress  thirteen 
continuous  terms.  The  revolt  that  made  him  Speaker 
was,  therefore,  not  a  violent  break  with  tradition. 
Mr.  Mann  has  been  in  the  House  eleven  continuous 
terms.  Mr.  Mondell  has  also  been  a  member  for  eleven 
terms,  but  not  continuously,  as  he  was  not  a  member 
of  the  Fifty-Fifth  Congress.  Joseph  W.  Fordney,  of 
Michigan,  now  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee,  has  been  in  Congress  for  ten  continuous 
terms.  Philip  Pitt  Campbell,  of  Kansas,  who  is  Chair- 
man of  the  Rules  Committee,  has  been  in  the  House 
eight  continuous  terms. 


6S  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

The  point  I  am  making  is  that  while  under  the 
present  system  the  political  color  of  the  House  may 
change  from  time  to  time,  the  quality  of  its  dominant 
personnel  is  not  greatly  disturbed  or  altered.  Before 
each  Congressional  election  it  is  fairly  well  known  who 
will  occupy  the  chief  positions  in  the  House  organiza- 
tion if  the  Democrats  win  and  who  will  be  the  "lead- 
ers" if  the  Republicans  are  successful.  That  condition 
may  have  something  to  do  with  the  present  estate  of 
the  so-called  popular  branch.  Really  able  and  force- 
ful and  vigorous  men  are  not  willing  to  serve  in  the 
ruck  for  a  long  period  of  years  before  breaking  through 
the  thick  crust  of  seniority.  The  country  outside  the 
House  offers  too  many  opportunities  for  advancement 
and  preferment  for  a  man  of  action  and  ability.  Men 
of  energy  and  substance  do  not  want  to  stand  in  a  long 
queue  waiting  for  the  gates  of  opportunity  to  open 
when  other  chances  are  immediately  open  to  them 
elsewhere. 

The  House  ought  to  command  the  best  ability  in  this 
country,  but  notoriously  it  does  not.  There  are  able 
men  in  the  House  among  its  unknowns,  and  they  will 
wait  a  long  time  before  they  become  known.  Long 
waiting  too  often  dulls  the  edge  of  ambition.  Men 
come  to  the  House  keen  and  alert  and  eager  who  after 
twenty  years'  service  find  themselves  much  like  their 
fellows.  They  conform  to  the  traditions,  the  practice 
and  the  spirit  of  the  House. 

And  yet,  after  all,  the  House  of  Representatives  is 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  69 

representative.  It  keeps  pace  with  the  country.  Its 
average  of  intelligence  is  the  average  of  intelligence 
over  our  continent.  We  make  it  just  what  it  is.  Every 
two  years  we  have  a  chance  to  throw  out  every  man  in 
it  and  put  in  new  blood.  If  the  people  in  Mr.  Cannon's 
district  and  Mr.  Fordney's  and  Mr.  Mortdell's  and  Mr. 
Garner's  and  Mr.  Campbell's  want  these  gentlemen  to 
represent  them  term  after  term,  they  have  a  perfect 
right  to  choose  them.  But  the  result  of  this  seniority 
bloc  is  that  the  House  has  small  allure  for  eager,  ambi- 
tious men.  If  such  men  come  to  the  House,  they  are 
willing  to  leave  it  when  opportunity  offers.  John  J. 
Fitzgerald,  of  New  York,  after  rising  high  on  the 
Democratic  side,  and  after  long  service,  left  of  his  own 
accord.  James  W.  Good,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Appropriations,  has  just  done  the  same  thing.  Of 
course,  any  of  them  would  leave  to  go  to  the  Senate. 
This  aspect  of  Washington,  this  balance  of  profit  and 
loss,  was  often  in  the  thoughts  of  Henry  Adams.  He 
relates  that  he  and  John  Hay  and  Clarence  King  often 
discussed  the  question:  "Hay  had  a  simple  faculty 
for  remembering  faces,  and  would  break  off  suddenly 
the  thread  of  his  talk,  as  he  looked  out  of  the  window 
on  Lafayette  Square,  to  notice  an  old  corps  commander 
or  admiral  of  the  Civil  War  tottering  along  to  his  club 
for  his  cards  or  his  cocktail.  .  .or  what  drew  Adams's 
close  attention :  '  There  goes  old  Boutwell  gamboling 
like  the  gamboling  kid.'  There  they  went !  Men  who 
had  swayed  the  course  of  empire  as  well  as  the  course 


70  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

of  Hay,  King,  and  Adams,  less  valued  than  the 
ephemeral  Congressman  behind  them,  who  could  not 
have  told  whether  the  general  was  a  Boutwell  or  Bout- 
well  a  general.  Theirs  was  the  highest  known  success, 
and  one  asked  what  it  was  worth  to  them.  Apart 
from  personal  vanity,  what  would  they  sell  it  for?" 

Washington  is  full  of  ghosts  ;  the  men  who  were. 

The  game  of  politics,  like  the  game  of  chess,  while 
intricate  and  susceptible  of  many  variations,  is  gov- 
erned by  fixed  and  ancient  rules  and  conventions.  A 
Persian  chess  master  having  no  language  but  his  own, 
and  no  contact  or  acquaintance  or  understanding  or 
even  faint  knowledge  of  the  Western  world,  could  yet 
come  to  Washington,  Georgia,  and  there  in  the  shade 
and  repose  and  peace  of  that  fine  old  town  meet  and 
play  the  local  expert  in  the  perfect  ease  and  security  of 
any  meeting  on  a  thoroughly  known  ground.  With  the 
chessmen  arranged  between  them,  the  players  would 
know  without  a  spoken  word  or  any  other  channel  of 
communication  what  to  do  next.  They  would  be  on 
familiar  ground.  They  would  know  the  moves.  They 
would  have  a  broad  field  of  contact.  The  Georgia  vil- 
lager might  soon  find  himself  in  closer  mental  com- 
munion with  the  Persian  than  with  any  of  his  neigh- 
bors. 

Politicians  among  us  are  set  apart  like  that.  Many 
of  them  —  a  great  many  too  many  of  them  —  follow 
the  game  for  a  livelihood.  They  become  professionals 
in  their  engrossing  vocation.  Politics  is  the  only  game 


LOST  IN  THE  MISTS  71 

that  has  no  penalties  of  suspension  or  disbarment  for 
fouls  and  unfair  practices.  There  are  no  rules  against 
gouging  and  biting  and  scratching  and  hitting  below 
the  belt.  Men  seek  to  rise  to  attain  temporary  ag- 
grandizement and  office,  to  overcome  their  opponents 
by  any  guile  or  subterfuge.  In  their  old  age  they  are 
embittered  and  their  lives  are  ashes  in  their  mouths. 
Their  days  of  activity  are  spent  in  the  vain  pursuit  of 
illusions  and  not  in  solid  achievement.  In  the  end  they 
are  "lame  ducks"  who  must  be  "taken  care  of,"  or,  if 
they  fall  out  of  the  game  inopportunely  when  their  old 
cronies  and  associates  are  not  in  power,  they  go  back 
where  they  came  from  and  "resume  the  practice  of 
law." 

Their  daily  life  is  one  of  appalling  transitions.  One 
day  it  takes  three  or  four  messengers  to  conduct  them 
in  proper  state  from  the  entrance  of  their  offices  to 
their  desks  and  relieve  them  of  hat  and  coat.  To  see 
the  great  man  appointments  have  to  be  made  well  in 
advance  through  a  reluctant  secretary,  and  the  time 
of  audience  is  restricted.  It  may  be  that  the  next  time 
you  see  him,  he  will  be  hanging  precariously  on  the 
rear  platform  of  a  street-car  and,  oh  !  so  eager  to  talk 
about  anything  and  as  long  as  you  like.  The  heavy 
curse  that  hangs  over  the  "ins"  is  that  sooner  or  later 
they  will  be  "outs,"  and  the  one  hope  that  sustains  the 
"outs,"  and  prevents  them  from  giving  away  to  de- 
spair and  going  to  work  to  earn  a  living,  is  that  pres- 
ently a  turn  of  the  wheel  will  bring  them  "in," 


72  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Being  what  they  are,  and  permeated  with  the  in- 
stinct for  their  guild,  the  politicians  resent  the  intru- 
sion of  amateurs  and  persons  with  new  ideas  and  new 
plans,  or  who  do  not  know  the  old  conventions.  They 
hate  anything  new  like  the  very  devil.  They  cannot 
cope  with  it.  They  have  no  apparatus  or  formula  to 
apply  to  new  problems  or  new  approaches.  They  like 
established  and  familiar  issues.  They  like  to  deal  with 
other  professionals. 

Too  many  good  men  and  able  have  heeded  Plutarch's 
advice.  He  said :  Abstain  from  beans ;  that  is,  keep 
out  of  public  offices,  for  anciently  the  choice  of  the 
officers  of  state  was  made  by  beans. 


AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT 

SCENE:  A  West  Point  section- room.  Time:  1927. 

The  first  section  in  Social  Science  is  discovered 
sitting  on  slim  gilt  chairs  in  a  well-appointed  room.  A 
silver  tea-service,  the  kettle  hissing  on  the  hob,  and 
the  tea-table,  provided  with  cream- jug,  sugar-bowl, 
and  a  small  dish  filled  with  thin  slices  of  lemon,  occu- 
pies an  advantageous  position  near  the  softly  burning 
cannel-coal  fire.  The  room  is  cozy  and  well-lighted. 
The  section  is  composed  of  youths  handsome  even  ac- 
cording to  the  high  West  Point  standard.  They  have 
learned  how  to  sit  on  the  fragile  chairs  without  seem- 
ing apprehensive.  They  are  of  the  corps  d'elite,  the 
Military  Aides  Division,  undergoing  special  prepara- 
tion for  detail  to  the  White  House  after  graduation. 
The  instructor  is  a  woman  who  has  qualified  herself 
for  the  high  and  important  work  by  several  years'  ex- 
perience as  a  social  secretary  at  Washington.  A  curate, 
holding  plates  containing  thin  slices  of  buttered  bread 
and  little  cakes,  stands  beside  the  tea-table.  The 
recitation  begins. 

Hostess-Instructor.  "The  young  gentlemen  who 
acted  as  visiting  ladies  will  serve  to-day  those  who 
performed  the  duties  of  aides  at  the  last  recitation." 

Straightway  there  ensues  a  well-bred  and  well- 
ordered  commotion.  Half  of  the  section  remains 


74  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

seated  and  uncrosses  its  legs.  The  other  half  rises,  and, 
murmuring,  "One  or  two  lumps,  please?"  and,  "Shall 
I  give  you  cream  or  a  slice  of  lemon?"  proceeds  to 
cluster  about  the  tea-table  and  execute  the  orders  they 
have  received.  The  Hostess- Instructor  watches  their 
every  movement  with  a  keen  and  critical  eye  and 
makes  suggestions  and  comments.  Finally,  when  the 
tea  has  been  poured  and  distributed: 

Hostess-Instructor.  "Now,  I  hope  you  young  gentle- 
men have  thoroughly  prepared  your  social-chatter 
lesson.  Mr.  Dash  will  recite  first." 

Cadet  Dash  arises  from  his  chair  and  throwing  him- 
self into  an  attitude  of  unstudied  grace,  begins  to 
murmur  in  a  beautifully  modulated  voice  a  string  of 
the  polite  nothings  that  pass  muster  as  conversation 
around  official  tea-tables.  After  the  other  members  of 
the  section  have  each  recited  in  turn,  the  Hostess- 
Instructor  presents  to  them  the  following  list  of  ques- 
tions with  the  request  that  answers  be  returned  at  the 
next  recitation : 

"  If  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  arrived  at  the 
same  moment,  which  would  be  presented  and  served 
first?" 

"  In  functions  participated  in  by  the  President,  the 
Vice-President,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  ambassa- 
dors of  foreign  powers,  state  the  order  of  precedence." 

"At  the  President's  New- Year  reception,  which  is 
received  first,  the  public  printer,  the  Librarian  of 


AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT  75 

Congress,  or  the  president  of  the  Columbian  Institute 
for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb?" 

"What  system  have  you  for  memorizing  which  of 
the  wives  of  Cabinet  members  and  ambassadors  take 
lemon  and  which  cream  in  their  tea,  and  how  many 
lumps  of  sugar,  if  any?" 

The  members  of  the  section  take  formal  good-bye  of 
the  Hostess- Instructor,  and  after  a  profusion  of  bows 
retire  from  the  room  in  their  settled  order  of  preced- 
ence. 

Yes,  indeed,  Eunice,  it  looked  at  one  time  as  if 
something  like  this  might  come  to  pass.  Where  the 
demand  was  so  active  it  seemed  incredible  that  the 
supply  should  not  be  created.  The  Military  Aide  at 
the  White  House  reached  his  highest  flower  of  beauty 
and  usefulness  in  the  Roosevelt  and  Taft  administra- 
tions. He  was  very  much  a  figure  in  those  days.  He 
fell  into  eclipse  in  the  Wilson  days  after  the  President 
came  in  contact  with  the  admirable  and  invaluable 
Admiral  Grayson.  Mr.  Wilson  was  first  busy  and  then 
at  war  and  then  ill  and  had  no  use  for  social  butterflies. 
And  that  precisely  is  what  a  Military  Aide  is,  an  officer 
of  the  Quartermaster  Corps,  or  the  cavalry,  or  what- 
ever arm  of  the  service,  detailed  to  the  White  House  to 
make  himself  useful  socially  as  the  President  or  his 
wife  may  direct.  It  is  a  life  full  of  odd  and  singular  and 
trivial  adventure.  It  is  not  clear  yet  what  and  how 
much  use  Mr.  Harding  will  make  of  those  who  have 


76  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

been  assigned  to  him.  I  have  only  seen  them  at  garden 
parties  and  that  was  not  a  true  test.  The  winter  season 
is  their  great  time. 

To  the  present  juncture  the  only  military  man 
President  Harding  has  had  about  him  is  that  freshly 
made  one,  his  personal  physician,  Brigadier-General 
Charles  E.  Sawyer.  And  General  Sawyer  is  not  a 
social  butterfly.  Far  be  it  from  so.  He  is  a  genial 
little  scout,  full  of  droll  stories,  and  can  make  a  good 
after-dinner  speech  that  will  evoke  roars  of  laughter 
even  in  these  dry  times,  but  over  the  teacups  he  would 
be  a  total  loss  and  no  insurance.  In  choosing  his  per- 
sonal physician  as  his  personal  aide  Mr.  Harding  is 
following  Mr.  Wilson's  example,  though  never  was  a 
soldier  turned  out  of  more  incurably  civilian  material 
than  when  the  magic  words  were  pronounced  that 
made  the  Marion  homoeopath  a  brigadier.  But  pres- 
ently Mrs.  Harding  may  discover  how  useful  can  be 
some  of  the  handsome  lads  of  the  army  and  navy  who 
have  been  assigned  to  the  White  House.  When  she 
does,  the  Military  Aide  will  perhaps  come  again  into 
his  old  high  and  lofty  estate. 

I  remember  and  can  tell  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  a 
military  aide  to  the  President  earning  his  salary  as 
fixed  by  law.  It  was  at  a  reception  at  the  White  House 
when  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  President.  In  those  days  all 
persons  invited  to  White  House  receptions  were  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  just  like  Seidlitz  powders,  and 
provided  with  white  and  blue  tickets  of  admission.  I 


AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT  77 

had  a  white  ticket;  so  did  several  thousand  other  per- 
sons. We  outnumbered  the  blue  tickets  more  than  ten 
to  one;  we  were  the  popular  branch.  The  blue  tickets 
went  in  at  the  front  door  and  met  the  President 
before  the  white  tickets  were  admitted  to  his  pres- 
ence. 

We  went  in  at  the  east  entrance  of  the  White  House 
opposite  the  Treasury  Building,  and  left  our  coats  and 
rubber  shoes  in  little  racks  in  the  long  corridor  nor- 
mally devoted  to  the  glass  cabinets  containing  plates 
used  on  the  White  House  dinner- table  when  Millard 
Fillmore  and  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and  Benjamin 
Harrison  and  others  were  President.  Presently  we 
trailed  upstairs  in  a  long  queue  across  the  central  re- 
ception hall,  through  the  family  dining-room  and  the 
big  state  dining-room,  through  the  Red  Room,  and 
into  the  presence  of  Mr.  Roosevelt.  As  we  shuffled 
nearer  and  nearer,  we  noted  that  opposite  the  Presi- 
dent and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  stood  two  military  officers  in 
full  uniform.  Gold  belts  were  strapped  about  their 
waists  and  at  their  sides  hung  swords.  They  were  in- 
troducing the  long  line  to  the  President  and  his  wife. 
One  of  them  I  knew.  We  had  known  each  other  for  a 
long  time.  Yet  when  I  came  up  to  him  he  looked  me 
straight  in  the  eye  and  asked  in  a  voice  intended  for 
my  ear  alone, 

"What  name,  please?" 

"McDermott,"  said  I,  in  a  clear,  penetrating  voice. 

As  one  who  might  announce,  "We-have-with-us- 


78  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

to-night,"  the  captain  bowed  to  the  President  and 
presented  in  a  loud,  firm  voice, 

"Mr.  President,  Mr.  Frelinghuysen." 

The  President  grabbed  my  hand  as  though  he  had 
been  waiting  for  me  all  the  evening,  as  though  all  that 
had  gone  before  was  mere  waste,  and  that  for  him,  at 
least,  the  climax  of  the  evening  had  come.  "How-de- 
do,  Mr.  Willingham?"  he  said:  "it  is  a  real  pleasure 
to  see  you  here  to-night."  A  confused  memory  of  the 
bobbing  heads  of  the  wives  of  the  Cabinet,  and  I  found 
myself  in  the  East  Room.  My  experience  had  been 
that  of  a  dry  leaf  caught  in  a  strong  draught. 

Later  in  the  evening  I  went  up  to  my  friend  the 
captain. 

"Why  did  you  tell  the  President  that  my  name  was 
Frelinghuysen?"  I  asked  him. 

He  looked  at  me  in  blank  amazement. 

"I  didn't  even  know  you  were  here,"  he  said. 

I  told  him  what  he  had  done.  Then  he  confessed. 

"To  tell  you  the  truth,"  he  said,  "after  the  first  two 
or  three  hundred  go  by  I  can't  distinguish  one  face 
from  another.  It's  hard  even  to  tell  the  men  from  the 
women.  Everything  gets  sort  of  blurred  before  my 
eyes.  It's  hard  to  catch  the  names.  People  won't 
speak  clearly.  Besides,  I  had  on  a  pair  of  new  boots 
to-night  and  nothing  else  mattered  much.  Did  you 
ever  stand  up  in  a  pair  of  new  boots  from  nine  o'clock 
until  a  quarter  of  eleven  asking  people  their  names  and 
then  repeating  them  in  a  loud,  clear  voice?" 


AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT  79 

My  next  view  of  a  military  aide  on  active  service 
was  at  a  reception  given  by  the  Vice- President  to  the 
members  of  the  Senate.  It  was  the  usual  sort  of  thing. 
There  was  a  sound  of  revelry  by  night,  and  mineral 
water  flowed  like  champagne.  The  light,  dry  rattle  of 
airy  persiflage  filled  the  air: 

"Who's  that  dodo  in  the  corner  with  the  pink 
feathers  in  her  hair?" 

"  My  dear,  he's  had  six  glasses  already,  and  there  he 
is  taking  another.  I  declare  he  hasn't  moved  away  from 
that  table  to-night." 

"So  gopd  of  you.  Won't  you  come  in  on  Thurs- 
day?" 

"Yes,  they  always  do  things  rather  well  here.  I  like 
to  come." 

"How  hot  the  rooms  are!" 

"Let's  slip  upstairs  and  smoke  a  cigarette." 

Suddenly  the  five  members  of  the  Marine  Band, 
barricaded  by  potted  palms  at  the  head  of  the  stair- 
way, struck  into  "Hail  to  the  Chief."  Everybody 
knew  what  that  meant.  There  was  a  pause,  and  then 
we  heard  a  clanking  sound  as  though  some  one  was 
dragging  a  nest  of  coal-scuttles  up  the  marble  stairs. 
Presently  there  came  in  view  the  President  and  his 
wife,  followed  by  two  resplendent  creatures  in  full 
uniforms,  the  scabbards  of  their  swords  banging 
against  the  steps  as  they  mounted.  It  was  an  impres- 
sive entrance.  We  welcomed  them  to  our  midst. 

But  these  two  instances  disclose  only  the  smallest 


8o  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

part  of  the  duties  of  an  aide  to  the  President.  They 
must  be  ready  and  willing  and  able  to  do  anything 
once.  They  are  paid  union  wages,  but  they  aren't 
allowed  to  keep  or  to  have  an  eight-hour  day.  Two 
soldiers  ideally  qualified  and  fitted  to  become  military 
aides  at  the  White  House  were  old  Abdullah  Bulbul 
Ameer  and  Ivan  Petroski  Skivar.  Their  glory  is  pre- 
served in  deathless  song: 

The  sons  of  the  Prophet  are  hardy  and  grim 

And  quite  unaccustomed  to  fear, 
But  most  reckless  by  far  both  of  life  and  of  limb 

Was  Abdullah  Bulbul  Ameer. 

If  you  wanted  a  man  to  encourage  the  van 

Or  to  harass  the  foe  in  the  rear, 
Or  to  storm  a  redoubt,  you  had  only  to  shout 

For  Abdullah  Bulbul  Ameer. 

There  are  brave  men  in  plenty  and  well  known  to  fame 

In  the  army  that  fights  for  the  Tsar, 
But  bravest  by  far  was  a  man  by  the  name 

Of  Ivan  Petroski  Skivar. 

He  could  imitate  Irving,  tell  fortunes  at  cards, 

Or  play  on  the  Spanish  guitar; 
In  fact,  quite  la  creme  de  la  creme  of  the  Guards 

Was  Ivan  Petroski  Skivar. 

To  be  able  to  imitate  Irving,  tell  fortunes  with  cards, 
and  play  on  the  Spanish  guitar  —  that  gives  some  idea 
of  the  range,  the  versatility,  the  adaptability  that 
should  be  possessed  by  an  aide  to  the  President. 
When  President  Taft  was  making  one  of  his  trips 
around  the  country,  an  editor  down  South,  who  had 


AIDE-ING  THE  PRESIDENT  81 

watched  the  doings  in  his  town,  went  back  to  his  office 
and  wrote  this  editorial  paragraph : 

"  President  Taft  is  having  the  time  of  Archie  Butt's 
life." 

Captain  Archie  Butt  was  President  Taft's  chief  and 
favorite  aide.  He  could  do  anything  that  old  Abdullah 
Bulbul  Ameer  or  Ivan  Petroski  Skivar  could  do,  and 
then  wouldn't  be  half  started.  He  walked,  rode, 
played  golf,  went  shopping,  played  bridge,  attended 
baseball  games,  and  traveled  with  the  President.  He 
attended  concerts,  theaters,  went  shopping  with  and 
helped  Mr,s.  Taft  at  her  teas.  He  dined  and  lunched  at 
the  White  House  almost  every  time  the  President 
gave  a  party.  He  helped  make  up  the  invitation  lists 
for  the  state  receptions  and  dinners,  and  knew  how  to 
fix  the  gramophone  when  it  got  out  of  order.  He  was 
about  the  best-liked  and  most  popular  man  in  Wash- 
ington. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  began  the  practice  of  having  military 
aides  in  attendance  on  his  person  when  he  went  abroad 
on  formal  occasions,  but  he  did  not  take  one  with  him 
every  time  he  stirred  about  nor  did  he  make  them  in- 
variably wear  their  uniforms.  It  remained  for  Mr. 
Taft  to  develop  the  possibilities  of  the  military  aide  as 
a  companion  and  as  an  object  to  delight  the  eye  of  the 
civilian  beholder.  Mr.  Roosevelt  used  to  ride  in  Rock 
Creek  Park,  and  practice  his  horse  over  some  low 
jumps  that  had  been  erected  for  his  use.  He  used  to 
pick  his  military  aides  from  young  men  in  the  army 


82  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

who  had  famous  names:  Lee,  Grant,  Sheridan,  Henry, 
and  the  like.  Young  Fitzhugh  Lee  was  for  a  long  time 
his  favorite  riding  companion. 

The  aides  are  much  courted  socially.  It  is  popularly 
supposed  to  lie  in  their  power  to  do  much  for  persons 
who  entertain  social  designs  upon  the  White  House. 
They  are  greatly  besought  for  favors.  They  are  very 
discreet  and  are  never  tempted  to  let  become  public 
the  contents  of  some  of  the  amusing  and  surprising 
requests  they  receive  from  persons  who  desire  to  be 
favored  above  others  invited  to  the  White  House. 


HAYS:  A  HUMAN  FLIVVER 

WILL  HAYS  doesn't  belong  to  the  Post-Office  Depart- 
ment. He  ought  to  be  out  at  the  Bureau  of  Standards 
in  the  case  in  the  vault  with  the  meter  bar  and  the 
kilogram  from  which  all  our  standards  of  weights  and 
measures  are  derived.  For  Mr.  Hays  is  a  standard  of 
measure  and  of  value  himself.  He  is  the  one  hundred 
per  cent  American  we  have  all  heard  so  much  talk 
about.  Submit  him  to  any  test  and  you  get  a  perfect 
reaction.  He  doesn't  even  stain  the  litmus  paper. 
Apply  any  native  or  domestic  standard  and  he  com- 
plies with  it  to  a  hair-line.  He  is  as  indigenous  as  sassa- 
fras root.  He  is  one  of  us.  He  is  folks.  As  such  I  like 
him  and  as  such  I  sing  him. 

I  have  noted  a  lamentable  disposition  in  certain 
quarters  to  speak  lightly  of  Mr.  Hays.  This  must  stop. 
When  we  make  light  of  him,  we  make  light  of  and 
decry  our  peculiar  national  institutions,  our  native 
civilization.  He  is  a  human  flivver,  the  most  charac- 
teristic native  product;  a  two-cylinder  single-seater, 
good  for  more  miles  per  gallon  than  any  other  make  of 
man.  He  takes  you  there  and  brings  you  back,  in  the 
blessed  phrase,  thus  satisfying  a  great  national  ideal. 
He  is  as  much  a  national  institution  and  as  purely  na- 
tive as  the  practice  of  buying  enlarged  crayon  portraits 
or  talking  machines  on  the  installment  plan. 

Mr.  Hays  cannot  be  described  or  interpreted  or 


84  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

treated  in  terms  of  the  eminent  Cato  style  of  thing. 
That  is  not  his  line  at  all.  Besides,  as  everybody 
knows,  Cato  was  a  foreigner  as  well  as  a  sourball.  On 
both  counts  it  is  a  case  of  thumbs  down  for  him. 

Unhappily  for  the  truth  and  for  our  present  under- 
standing of  the  public  men  about  us,  there  has  lingered 
through  the  ages  a  superstition  that  we  must  cling  to 
the  old  classic  models  in  observing  and  commenting 
upon  statesmen  and  holders  of  high  office.  Under  this 
outworn  practice  we  must  think  of  them  as  wearing 
togas  and  speaking  in  rotund,  sonorous  phrases  from 
which  one  in  schoolboy  days  sought  out  through  many 
weary  hours  the  gerund  and  the  gerundive  or  what 
not,  as  the  masters  ordered.  Whereas,  if  you  pick  up  a 
Congressional  Record,  you  find  them  actually  saying: 

"The  two  Prussianizing  influences  working  like 
comajenes  to  undermine  the  army  are  the  classifica- 
tion system  and  the  General  Staff,  headed  by  Sir  John 
Pershing,  whose  ideals  and  methods  are  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  best  traditions  of  America.  Under 
these  two  institutions  injustices  sprung  up  during  the 
war  and  are  still  bearing  fruit.  It  is  not  service  nor 
merit  that  count.  Favoritism,  pull,  intrigue,  standing 
in  with  the  man  above,  all  play  a  more  important  part 
than  record,  ability,  and  understanding  of  and  power 
to  handle  men.  Preference  is  given  to  men  who  spend 
their  energy  in  flattering  their  superiors  instead  of  de- 
feating the  enemy. ..." 

No,  you  cannot  make  much  of  Mr.  Hays  by  apply- 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

SECRETARY  HUGHES  AND  POSTMASTER-GENERAL  HAYS 


HAYS  85 

ing  the  classic  standards.  He  derives  more  nearly  from 
Mr.  Addison  Sims  of  Seattle  than  he  does  from  Cato. 
If  some  alchemist  in  biology  (if  you  know  what  I 
mean)  could  extract  the  essential  juices  from  Mr. 
Addison  Sims  and  all  the  typical  Rotarians,  he  might 
produce  a  sort  of  pale,  synthetic  Will  Hays,  but  there 
stili  would  be  qualities  missing.  For  he  is  an  articulate 
emotionalist  if  ever  there  was  one;  a  politician  to  his 
finger-tips  and  a  strong  josher;  a  real  handshaker  and 
elbow  massager.  He  is  the  English  sparrow  of  the 
Harding  administration:  chipper,  confident,  unafraid, 
friendly.  And  he  behaves  as  such. 

You  must  have  read  a  paragraph,  as  I  did,  in  the 
newspapers  not  long  ago  telling  how  Postmaster- 
General  Hays  has  hung  his  office  latchstring  out  in 
fact.  The  word  "private"  has  vanished  from  the  door 
and  you  just  walk  in  when  you  want  to  see  him.  In- 
side you'll  find  a  huge  room  with  Mr.  Hays  at  his  desk 
in  one  corner  and  a  lot  of  chairs  scattered  around.  Mr. 
Hays  will  hand  you  his  engagement  list  for  the  day 
and  you  can  see  for  yourself  how  he  is  fixed  for  time, 
pick  out  your  own  slice  of  any  not  already  appro- 
priated, and  then  camp  in  a  chair  across  the  room 
until  your  time  comes.  Conferences  are  held  in  sight 
if  not  in  actual  hearing  of  everybody  who  happens  to 
be  in  the  room,  and  there  is  no  usher,  no  secretary, 
confidential  clerk,  messenger,  or  other  functionary  to 
deal  with. 

This  procedure  does  not  apply  to  Senators;  but, 


86  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

then,  no  rule  or  procedure  does  apply  to  them  in 
Washington. 

You  must  have  read  also  how  Mr.  Hays  dictates  to 
three  stenographers  at  once  and  how  he  arrived  at  his 
office  one  day  before  any  of  the  clerks  had  reported. 
Well,  it's  all  true.  I  thought  it  was  press-agent  stuff, 
and  the  most  perfunctory  and  conventional  press- 
agent  stuff  at  that,  until  I  went  down  to  the  Post- 
Office  Department  to  find  out  for  myself.  But  the  per- 
formance is  actually  put  on  as  advertised.  Any  one 
may  come  in.  Seats  free,  strangers  welcome. 

I  was  glad  I  was  curious  enough  to  go,  for  I  en- 
countered a  Greek  valet  that  Mr.  Hays  has  inherited 
or  acquired  from  Colonel  George  Harvey.  This  boy  — 
he  is  a  mere  lad  —  is  seeing  life.  During  the  war  he 
was  an  interpreter  with  the  British  forces  in  Mesopo- 
tamia. After  the  war  he  came  to  New  York  and  got  a 
job  as  a  waiter  in  the  Knickerbocker  Hotel.  When  the 
Knickerbocker  went  out  of  business,  Mr.  Regan,  the 
proprietor,  passed  the  youth  on  to  his  friend,  Colonel 
Harvey,  as  a  valet  of  sorts.  When  the  new  ambassador 
went  to  London,  the  Greek  was  left  behind  with  Will 
Hays.  But  not  as  a  valet.  Never!  Never!  The  most 
trustworthy  and  detailed  accounts  of  American  his- 
tory fail  to  reveal  a  single  instance  where  a  man  in  or 
from  Sullivan  County,  Indiana,  ever  needed  or  em- 
ployed a  valet  to  help  him  put  on  his  clothes  or  take 
care  of  his  wardrobe. 

"I  want  to  pr0-gress,"  said  the  Greek. 


HAYS  87 

"I  want  him  to  be  useful,"  said  Will  Hays,  and  at 
once  started  him  to  learning  typewriting  on  a  second- 
hand machine. 

And  now,  as  the  heir  of  all  the  ages  sits  on  the  eighth 
floor  of  the  Post-Office  Building,  pegging  away  at 
"  Now  is  the  time  for  all  good  men  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  the  party,"  and  contemplating  his  new  boss,  I 
would  give  a  hat  to  know  his  unvarnished,  actual 
impression  of  him.  I  may  add  that  the  Greek  is  not  on 
the  Government  pay-roll.  He  is  a  private  venture  in 
Americanization  which  is  being  conducted  under  the 
personal  supervision  and  at  the  private  expense  of  the 
Postmaster-General. 

Mr.  Hays  is  at  least  a  contemporary,  if  not  a  mod- 
ernist. He  believes  in  the  form  of  Government  of  the 
United  States,  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  which  he  is 
an  elder,  as  was  his  father  before  him,  and  the  Republi- 
can Party.  He  accepts  and  concedes  the  advantage  of 
such  modern  things  as  stem-winding  watches,  self- 
starters,  and  demountable  rims.  He  is  not  hidebound. 
And  if  I  may  venture  to  introduce  our  native  speech 
into  these  undented  precincts,  I'll  tell  the  world  that 
he  wears  snappy  clothes.  Not  all  the  young  men  in  all 
the  spring  clothing  advertisements  have  anything  on 
him  as  a  nobby  dresser. 

He  honestly  believes,  too,  in  the  freedom  of  the 
press,  and  does  not  fear  that  Max  Eastman  or  any- 
body else  can  make  a  dent,  much  less  impede,  retard, 
or  impair,  the  institutions  and  principles  he  cherishes. 


88  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

The  day  that  I  called  upon  him  to  verify  his  open-door 
policy  he  was  considering  the  case  of  the  Liberator,  and 
we  talked  about  it. 

Mr.  Hays  was  clearly  puzzled  to  discover  a  reason 
or  rule  of  action  that  made  a  publication  unfit  to 
associate  in  the  mails  with  other  second-class  matter, 
but  mailable  at  a  higher  rate  of  postage.  It  was  no 
surprise  when  he  restored  the  Liberator  to  the  second- 
class  privilege  and  refunded  the  excess  postage  that 
had  been  paid.  Also  I  came  away  with  the  impression 
that  Mr.  Hays  has  not  forgotten  what  he  learned  in 
his  schoolboy  days,  that  gas,  hot  air,  or  steam  com- 
monly are  not  dangerous  or  destructive  unless  confined 
and  compressed.  Given  a  vent  they  are  just  vapors 
(or  vaporings)  and  will  do  no  harm.  Mr.  Hays  very 
plainly  does  not  want  to  be  a  censor;  he  is  sure  about 
that. 

Mr.  Hays  couldn't  be  other  than  what  he  is  —  a 
typical  native  product,  for  he  comes  from  what  Joe 
Mitchell  Chappie  would  call  the  great  throbbing  heart 
of  the  country,  meaning  Sullivan,  Sullivan  County, 
Indiana,  which  is  right  on  the  edge  of  the  center  of 
population.  He  is  not  a  rustic.  But  neither  is  he  urban. 
Certainly  he  is  not  suburban,  as  I  once  thought. 
Groping  for  the  right  phrase,  I  should  say  he  is  more 
like  a  visiting  Elk  who  knows  his  way  about.  He  is 
forty  years  old.  He  has  been  in  politics  all  his  life.  He 
is  interested  and  engrossed  in  the  game  every  day  in 
the  year.  He  was  a  precinct  committeeman  before  h§ 


HAYS  89 

was  twenty-one.  Being  a  Republican  chairman  of 
something  or  other  has  been  his  life  career.  He  has 
been  chairman  of  his  county  committee,  State  Ad- 
visory Committee,  speakers'  bureau  of  the  State  Com- 
mittee, district  chairman,  and  chairman  of  the  State 
Central  Committee,  and  finally  chairman  of  the  Re- 
publican National  Committee.  He  has  come  to  the  end 
of  the  chairmanships  his  party  has  to  offer.  He  has 
played  out  the  string. 

One  of  his  ideas,  he  told  me,  is  that  everybody 
should  get  into  politics.  He  wants  more  politics  rather 
than  less  politics.  His  great  aspiration  is  to  get  all  the 
war  workers,  all  the  dollar- a- year  men,  all  the  Liberty 
Loan  drive  men  and  women,  all  the  Red  Cross  volun- 
teers, all  the  canteen  workers,  to  transfer  the  energies 
they  put  into  war  activities  into  politics.  Hays  ex- 
pressed this  belief  to  me  one  day: 

"The  day  is  passing  when  men  will  tolerate  any- 
where in  this  country  any  practices  in  politics  that 
they  would  not  commend  in  the  strictest  business  and 
professional  affairs.  When  we  get  our  politics  entirely 
on  this  basis,  when  we  live  our  patriotism  daily,  we 
will  do  a  citizen's  full  duty,  and  not  until  then.  I  re- 
peat, I  have  no  use  for  the  individual  who  is  either 
'too  busy'  or  'too  good'  to  help.  He  has  no  just  com- 
plaint to  make,  whatever  happens.  He  is  riding  on 
another's  ticket.  I  have  an  abiding  faith  that  there 
will  be  an  awakened  sense  of  civic  duty  as  one  of  the 
by-products  of  the  war. 


90  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

"I  repeat,  and  shall  continually  declare,  that  what 
we  need  in  this  country  is  not  'less  politics,'  but  more 
attention  to  politics.  Politics  is  the  science  of  govern- 
ment, and  what  we  need  is  more  attention  to  the 
science  of  government.  We  fought  in  France  to  make 
certain  everywhere  that  men  should  have  the  right  to 
govern  themselves,  and  here  in  this  country,  where  we 
have  that  privilege,  I  insist  that  we  exercise  it." 

While  I  have  not  read  every  page  of  it,  I  know  that 
his  life  is  an  open  book,  for  he  has  been  in  nearly  every 
big  factional  fight  in  Indiana  for  twenty  years,  and  I 
have  known  fights  out  there  so  bitter  and  so  searching 
that  they  were  willing  to  go  back  to  a  man's  great- 
great-grandfather,  and  what  he  had  done  to  the  In- 
dians, to  get  something  on  him.  Hays  has  come 
through  as  clean  as  a  smelt.  He  is  a  shrewd,  lively, 
industrious,  average  human  being,  having  a  very  good 
time  out  of  life.  He  is  not  a  great  man,  but,  then,  who 
is  here  at  Washington  —  or  anywhere  else?  Mostly 
they  seem  to  be  running  in  the  medium  sizes  these 
days. 

Mr.  Hays  is  doing  a  good  job  in  the  Post-Office  De- 
partment. He  is  restoring  its  morale  and  its  efficiency 
by  great  leaps.  A  few  days  after  he  was  sworn  in  he 
met,  was  introduced  to,  and  spoke  to  all  of  the  two 
thousand  Post-Office  Department  employees  in  Wash- 
ington. Even  "Old  Tom,"  the  Post-Office  cat,  was 
greeted.  Then  he  went  to  the  New  York  and  Chicago 
post-offices  and  met  and  spoke  to  all  the  employees 


HAYS  91 

there.  He  was  putting  what  he  calls  "heart"  into 
them.  The  procedure  has  been  an  immense  success. 
To  all  of  them  Mr.  Hays  said: 

"Every  effort  shall  be  exercised  to  humanize  the 
department.  Labor  is  not  a  commodity.  That  idea  was 
abandoned  nineteen  hundred  and  twenty-one  years  ago 
next  Easter.  In  this  department  are  three  hundred  thou- 
sand employees.  They  have  the  brain  and  theyhave  the 
hand  to  do  the  job  well;  and  they  shall  have  the  heart 
to  do  it  well.  We  purpose  to  approach  this  matter  so 
that  they  shall  be  partners  with  us  in  this  business.  It 
is  a  great  human  institution  touching  every  individual 
in  the  country.  It  is  a  great  business  institution  serving 
every  individual  in  the  country.  I  know  that  with  three 
hundred  thousand  men  and  women  pledged  to  serve  all 
the  people  and  honestly  discharging  that  duty,  fairly 
treated,  and  properly  appreciated,  all  partners  with  us 
here  in  this  great  enterprise,  we  can  do  the  iob.  It's 
going  to  be  done." 

That,  he  has  found,  is  the  stuff  to  give  the  troops. 
It  bucks  'em  up,  and  now  they  all  swear  by  him  and 
believe  in  him.  And  so,  as  he  dashes  about  arriving  at 
Cabinet  meetings  a  little  breathlessly  and  always  with 
not  more  than  five  seconds  to  spare  before  the  Presi- 
dent enters  the  cabinet  room,  he  seems  fairly  content, 
for  he  is  taking  his  hills  on  high.  And  that  is  always  a 
satisfaction. 


WOOD:  OUR  LONE  PRO-CONSUL 

IT  would  have  been  too  absurd  if  we  could  have  done 
no  better  for  Leonard  Wood  than  to  give  him  as  the 
capstone  of  his  varied  career  the  Provostship  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  Not  that  it  isn't  an  honor- 
able post  of  high  distinction,  but  it  is  so  entirely  out 
of  General  Wood's  line  of  country.  He  is  not  an  edu- 
cator. He  is  our  lone  pro-consul.  Under  our  peculiar 
form  of  government,  as  devised  by  what  President 
Harding  will  call  the  "founding  fathers,"  there  is  no 
career  for  a  pro-consul  and  colonial  administrator. 

General  Wood  would  have  done  much  better  to  have 
been  born  in  England.  Then  he  wouldn't  have  had  to 
cast  about  as  he  has  in  recent  years  for  an  outlet  for 
his  energies,  his  wholesome  ambition,  and  his  desire  for 
effective  public  service.  When  the  Government  which 
General  Wood  organized  in  Cuba  ran  down  and 
stopped  ticking  in  1906  because  the  Cubans  did  not 
keep  it  wound  up,  Mr.  Roosevelt  sent  a  one-time 
Nebraska  lawyer  down  there  to  be  Governor-General. 
It  is  an  incurably  casual  way  we  have. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  General  Wood  applied 
himself  to  mastering  the  profession  of  arms.  He  be- 
came our  best-known  professional  soldier  at  home  and 
abroad.  Not  only  best-known,  but  I  am  willing  to 
concede  our  best-equipped  officer.  Certainly  he  is  so 
r^ted  by  the  keenest  professional  opinion  in  England 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

SECRETARY  WEEKS  AND  GENERAL  WOOD 


WOOD  93 

and  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  Then  the  war  came 
along  and  the  President  as  Commander-in- Chief,  act- 
ing within  his  discretion  under  the  statutes  made  and 
provided  in  such  cases  (General  Pershing  eagerly 
assenting),  kept  General  Wood  out  of  the  war.  That, 
of  course,  was  a  heavy  cross  for  him  to  bear.  He  had 
a  right  to  feel  frustrated.  He  didn't  complain.  A  good 
many  people  shared  General  Wood's  feelings.  There 
was  a  fairly  widespread  public  sense  that  something 
ought  to  be  done  about  it.  So  the  General  became  a 
candidate  for  the  Republican  nomination  for  the 
presidency.  That  was  a  curious  adventure. 

Julius  Caesar  and  George  Washington  and  Oliver 
Cromwell  and  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Andrew  Jackson 
and  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  quite  a  number  of  others 
managed  successfully  to  combine  the  professions  of 
arms,  statesmanship,  politics,  and  office-holding,  but 
General  Wood  couldn't  quite  bring  it  off.  Times  have 
changed,  and  for  the  moment,  at  least,  there  is  a  sound 
public  instinct  among  us  against  placing  military 
personages  in  high  civil  office. 

To  Major-General  Wood,  running  for  the  presidency 
was  an  open  process  openly  arrived  at.  His  was  not  a 
bashful  candidacy.  He  was  unlike  any  presidential 
candidate  I  ever  saw ;  and  I  have  been  much  exposed 
to  them.  He  was  difficult  to  focus  either  as  a  soldier 
among  politicians  or  as  a  politician  whose  true  func- 
tion is  soldiering.  It  was  easy  to  decide  that  he  was  a 
better  soldier  than  he  was  a  politician,  for  he  is  ng 


94  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

politician  at  all.  He  long  had  a  hankering  for  politics, 
but  every  time  he  dipped  into  that  turbid  pool  he  im- 
periled his  status  as  a  soldier.  I  suspect  he  was  not 
alert  enough.  It  is  enough  that  the  politicians  thought 
of  him  as  a  soldier  and  many  soldiers  regarded  him 
enviously  as  a  politician  and  attributed  his  eminence 
to  his  political  qualities  and  acumen.  Certainly  he 
was  not  a  typical  politician.  He  was  not  a  typical 
army  officer,  either,  for  he  had  and  has  a  sound  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  world  and  its  affairs. 

Nor  can  I  give  him  my  vote  in  any  public  award  of 
the  Roosevelt  mantle.  Roosevelt  was  an  eager,  ardent, 
practicing  politician  and  public  man  who  liked  to  think 
of  himself  as  a  soldier,  which,  of  course,  he  was  not,  for 
he  had  no  sense  of  subordination  or  discipline.  He  en- 
joyed to  the  utmost  the  brief  adventure  of  the  Spanish 
War,  but  he  never  would  or  could  have  endured  the 
rigidity  and  monotony  and  effacement  of  army  routine. 
General  Wood,  on  the  other  hand,  as  I  see  him,  is  an 
army  man  who  likes  to  think  of  himself  as  a  statesman 
and  public  man.  He  has  a  perfect  right  to  think  of 
himself  in  that  capacity,  too,  and  have  his  dreams. 
But  he  has  got  to  show  qualities  and  attributes  not  yet 
revealed  before  his  dreams  come  true. 

He  is  a  solid  man.  The  upper  part  of  his  body  is 
finely  developed.  His  arms,  wrists,  and  hands  are 
large  and  thick  and  powerful.  His  legs  seem  too 
short  and  thin  for  the  immense  torso  and  barrel  they 
have  to  carry.  This  impression  is  accentuated  by  his 


WOOD  95 

lameness,  for  his  left  leg  drags  perceptibly  when  he 
walks. 

Though  he  is  sixty  years  old,  his  head  is  well 
thatched  with  blond  hair;  no  indication  of  baldness 
anywhere.  He  has  kept  his  hair.  His  face  is  impassive 
and  rather  heavy  in  repose.  It  doesn't  light  up  much 
even  when  he  talks  about  the  things  that  interest  him. 
Indeed,  he  is  as  undemonstrative  a  person  as  you  will 
encounter  in  a  day's  walk.  His  emotions  (if  any,  as  the 
income-tax  forms  say)  lie  deep  and  are  well  under 
control.  He  may  be  a  charter  member  of  the  "strong, 
silent  man"  group,  but  I  do  not  get  that  impression. 
It  may  be  that  his  apperceptions  and  antennae  are  not 
as  sensitive  as  some  other  persons'.  He  is  not  quick  to 
take  fire.  He  is  not  colorful ;  he  does  not  glow.  At  any 
rate,  he  did  not  glow  for  me,  though  I  blew  and  blew 
trying  to  kindle  a  flame. 

General  Wood  has  a  distinct  charm  of  manner  as  a 
social  being,  and  I  understand  perfectly  why  people 
who  are  associated  with  him  like  him  and  swear  by 
him.  His  voice  is  low,  pleasant,  agreeable,  and  well 
modulated.  He  speaks  without  gesture  and  without 
emphasis  or  marked  inflection.  Even  when  he  is  mak- 
ing a  speech  he  does  not  gesticulate,  but  stands  in  one 
posture,  with  his  right  hand  grasping  his  left  wrist 
behind  him.  He  is  an  effective  speaker  in  a  simple, 
direct  fashion,  without  heat  or  passion  or  rising  to  the 
heights,  and  a  really  interesting  talker. 

He  was  in  uniform  when  last  I  talked  with  him,  and 


96  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS      * 

one  that  showed  traces  of  his  brief  service  abroad  as  a 
military  observer  during  the  war.  Instead  of  two  tin 
stars  on  his  shoulders,  his  insignia  of  rank  was  em- 
broidered, after  the  French  fashion,  in  silver  gilt,  and 
he  wore  cord  breeches  lighter  in  color  than  his  khaki 
tunic. 

Also  I  was  amused  to  note  how  he  had  taken  the  Sam 
out  of  the  Sam  Browne  belt  and  thus  brought  himself 
within  regulations.  He  was  girt  about  the  middle  with 
a  broad  heavy  belt,  but  had  left  off  the  distinguishing 
cross  strap  that  lies  diagonally  across  the  chest  over 
the  right  shoulder.  This  is  a  fashion  set  by  Field 
Marshal  Haig  which  many  of  our  overseas  officers 
followed. 

Any  one  who  comes  in  contact  with  General  Wood 
must  like  his  personality.  He  is  a  man  of  ability  in  his 
chosen  field,  but  unfortunately  for  him  or  for  us,  that 
chosen  field  is  not  greatly  cultivated  here.  Administer- 
ing the  affairs  of  an  inferior  or  subject  people  through 
an  army  of  occupation  is  one  problem  ;  and  that  Gen- 
eral Wood  knows  from  experience.  Administering  the 
affairs  of  a  free  and  noisy  people,  all  hailing  from 
Missouri,  is  something  else  again.  Ask  Mr.  Taft  or 
Mr.  Wilson.  Ask  anybody.  But  General  Wood  was 
wholly  within  his  rights  in  asking  us  to  allow  him  to 
make  the  experiment.  And  the  politicians  who  con- 
trolled the  Chicago  Convention  of  1920  were  equally 
wholly  within  their  rights  in  declining  the  General's 
urgently  made  proffer  and  selecting  Mr.  Harding.  It 


WOOD  97 

was  jusr  another  one  of  those  well-meant  things  that 
didn't  come  off. 

I  imagine  the  routine  of  the  army  looked  bleak  and 
dreary  to  General  Wood  after  this  high  and  engrossing 
emprise.  He  could  not  look  for  a  high  and  active  place. 
The  Pershing  faction  had  come  into  control,  and  that 
meant  friction  or  effacement  for  Wood.  Mr.  Harding 
saved  the  situation  when  he  offered  to  send  him  out 
to  Manila  as  Governor-General,  but  even  that  post 
does  not  offer  a  very  enthralling  prospect  to  a  man  of 
sixty.  Besides,  he  long  ago  went  through  that  phase. 
He  has  done  his  full  share  of  "pacifying"  in  our 
Eastern  archipelago.  He  pacified  the  Moros.  Once  is 
enough  of  that  sort  of  thing.  The  freshness  is  all  worn 
off  the  Philippines  as  a  scene  of  active  adventure  and 
enterprise.  I,  for  one,  do  not  wonder  that  General 
Wood  turned  a  heeding  ear  to  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania when  it  offered  to  make  him  Provost  before 
the  chance  came  to  go  again  to  the  Philippines.  It  was 
something  new,  at  any  rate. 

But  what  an  unexpected  road  he  has  followed  to 
bring  him  where  he  is.  When  he  graduated  from  the 
Harvard  Medical  School  his  first  services  were  given  to 
the  poor  of  Boston.  Soon  he  became  a  contract  sur- 
geon in  the  army.  That  was  the  old  name  for  a  doctor 
hired  by  the  army  from  civil  life.  He  served  through 
an  Indian  campaign  in  the  Southwest  and  won  the 
Congressional  Medal  of  Honor.  That  is  the  highest 
military  distinction  we  bestow.  Then  he  got  his 


98  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

chance.  One  apparently  sure  road  to  advancement  in 
this  broad  expanse  is  becoming  physician  to  a  Presi- 
dent. Dr.  Wood  was  set  on  that  highway. 

When  Grover  Cleveland  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  he  asked  Daniel  Lamont  to  secure  for 
attendance  at  the  White  House  the  services  of  a  suit- 
able surgeon  of  the  army.  An  officer,  now  a  Major- 
General  of  the  United  States  Army,  was  appealed  to, 
and  suggested  Dr.  Leonard  Wood.  After  Mr.  Cleve- 
land left  the  White  House,  Dr.  Wood  continued  as  the 
attending  physician  to  President  McKinley.  When  the 
Spanish  War  broke  out,  McKinley  commissioned  him 
as  the  Colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders.  Within  a  month 
after  the  first  action  against  the  enemy  Wood  was 
made  a  Brigadier-General  of  volunteers  by  President 
McKinley,  and  soon  afterwards  was  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  troops  and  in  charge  of  the  civil  adminis- 
tration of  the  Department  of  Santiago. 

The  military  duties  of  General  Wood  at  this  time 
were  insignificant  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  civil 
administration.  He  cleaned  the  city,  purged  it  of  all 
tropical  diseases,  and  turned  it  from  a  pest-hole  into  a 
modern  city  in  which  public  works  were  installed. 
Roads  and  bridges  were  constructed,  public  buildings 
renovated  or  rebuilt,  a  school  system  was  established, 
and  the  laws  were  executed. 

At  the  end  of  a  year  Wood  was  made  Governor- 
General  of  Cuba  with  instructions  to  convert  Cuba 
into  a  self-sustaining  republic.  This  work  required  the 


WOOD  99 

adoption  of  a  new  constitution,  the  rewriting  of  the 
laws  of  the  island,  the  revision  of  public  works,  the 
installation  of  public  schools,  and  in  general  all  the 
machinery  for  the  proper  operation  of  any  Govern- 
ment. 

When  the  new  State  of  Cuba  was  established  as  one 
of  the  independent  republics  of  the  world,  Wood  was 
sent  by  President  Roosevelt  to  the  Philippine  Islands 
where  he  pacified  Mindanao  Province. 

Richard  Olney,  at  one  time  Secretary  of  State  under 
Grover  Cleveland,  wrote :  "...  to  congratulate  you  per- 
sonally on  the  most  successful  and  deservedly  suc- 
cessful career,  whether  soldier  or  public  man  of  any 
sort,  that  the  Spanish  War  and  its  consequences  have 
brought  to  the  front." 

At  the  end  of  his  work  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
Leonard  Wood  was  called  to  Washington  and  made 
Chief  of  Staff  of  the  army,  where  he  undertook  the 
preparatory  work  which  later  resulted  in  the  student 
officers'  camps  and  the  business  men's  camps  that 
ultimately  produced,  at  the  time  of  the  declaration  of 
war  with  Germany,  approximately  40,000  partially 
trained  officers  who  were  made  available  for  service 
with  the  new  army  to  be  raised  and  sent  overseas. 

At  the  end  of  his  period  as  Chief  of  Staff,  Leonard 
Wood  was  assigned  to  command  the  Department  of 
the  East.  He  then  had  the  opportunity  to  put  into 
active  operation  the  Plattsburg  Camps,  and  after- 
wards other  students'  camps  throughout  the  country. 


ioo  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

I  think  it  entirely  possible  that  General  Wood's 
career  is  better  known  and  more  highly  esteemed 
abroad  than  it  is  in  this  country.  Here  he  has  been  and 
is  an  eminent  but  more  or  less  unrelated  figure.  We 
have  no  niche,  or  place  in  our  national  filing  system 
for  pro-consuls  or  colonial  administrators.  As  they 
say  in  business,  we  aren't  organized  to  handle  that 
class  of  goods.  I  think,  too,  we  have  a  general  feeling 
that  we  can  pick  up  one  when  the  need  comes.  That  is 
General  Wood's  hard  luck,  and  maybe  our  misfortune, 
but,  anyhow,  that  is  how  we  found  him ;  just  by 
chance.  There  may  be  another,  if  we  ever  need  him. 


THE  GREAT  HITCHCOCK  ENIGMA 

IF  I  was  a  young  man  in  college  studying  politics, 
meaning,  as  that  would  mean,  of  course,  the  politics  of 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  I  would  add  a  touch  of  actuality  to 
the  proceeding  by  writing  a  thesis  for  a  doctorate  with 
this  leading  caption  :  "  Does  He  Blow  Out  the  Gas  ?  — 
Being  an  Inquiry  into  the  Habits  and  Activities  of 
Frank  H.  Hitchcock  Between  Campaigns."  I  should 
not  expect  an  undergraduate  and  an  amateur  to  chart 
Mr.  Hitchcock's  activities  while  actually  engaged  in  a 
campaign.  Even  the  professionals  can't  always  do  that. 
Mr.  Hitchcock  is  a  piece-work  Warwick.  He  has  a 
closed  shop  ;  he  doesn't  admit  apprentices,  nor  does  he 
belong  to  the  professional  politicians'  union.  He  is  a 
specialist.  His  lay  is  picking  Presidential  candidates. 
This  is  not  only  a  piece-work  job,  but  essentially  a 
seasonal  occupation.  Though  Mr.  Hitchcock  has  fol- 
lowed his  precarious  trade  for  many  years  —  about  fif- 
teen, in  fact  —  he  is  still  free  from  any  vocational 
stigmata.  He  is  inscrutable,  imperturbable,  impene- 
trable, and  notably  close-mouthed.  He  offers  no  more 
inviting  avenue  of  approach  for  scrutiny  and  communi- 
cation than  a  well-made  billiard  ball.  Not  that  he  isn't 
civil,  for  he  is;  but  that,  like  Lord  Tennyson's  lady 
friend,  he  is  icily  regular,  splendidly  null.  One  never 
seems  to  get  on,  to  get  anywhere,  no  matter  how  pro- 
longed the  contact. 


102  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

I  know  it  is  a  horrid,  vulgar  little  detail,  but  Mr. 
Hitchcock  never  sweats.  Even  at  national  conventions 
where,  after  two  or  three  days,  everybody  wilts  and 
begins  to  have  the  bedraggled  aspect  of  something  the 
cat  has  brought  in,  Mr.  Hitchcock  is  as  immaculate, 
as  aloof,  as  specklessly  arrayed  as  one  of  the  superior 
young  men  in  the  collar  advertisements.  He  might 
have  just  come  out  of  the  hands  of  a  vacuum  cleaner. 
Always  he  is  like  that.  He  greets  the  embarrassed  gods 
nor  fears  to  shake  the  iron  hand  of  Fate  or  match  with 
Destiny  for  beers  —  that  sort  of  thing,  if  you  know 
what  I  mean.  John  Oakhurst  plus  the  young  Talley- 
rand, plus  a  second  carbon  copy  of  the  Admirable 
Crichton,  plus  the  house  of  Kuppenheimer  —  that  is 
the  general  impression. 

And  nobody  seems  to  know  what  is  his  little  game. 
Apparently  it  is  not  money.  He  seems  just  to  like  to 
back  his  fancy.  He  doesn't  run  in  herds  with,  or  as  do, 
the  other  politicians.  He  plays  a  lone  hand.  He  is 
always  a  figure  apart.  To  me  he  is  one  of  the  most 
provocative,  puzzling,  and  intriguing  figures  in  the 
great  intricate  game  of  national  politics.  He  provokes 
curiosity  and  inquiry. 

Of  this  I  am  sure.  He  is  a  bred  gamester  with  a  cold 
passion  for  the  hazard  of  high  stakes  and  the  rigor  of 
keen  play.  He  likes  the  matching  of  wits  and  the  tor- 
tuous intrigues  of  politics.  He  plays  at  politics  as  other 
men  play  at  poker  or  dice.  Politics  and  "  big  business" 
are  the  only  really  big  games  that  we  support  in  this 


HITCHCOCK  103 

country.  They  are  full  of  thrills  for  the  men  who  play 
them. 

In  all  his  political  career  Mr.  Hitchcock  has  never 
been  attached  to  a  cause  or  championed  a  principle. 
He  has  attached  himself  to  men,  or  more  precisely  a 
man,  and  played  with  other  men  as  pawns.  We  have 
always  had  such  men  in  this  adventurous,  chance- 
loving  country,  but  I  do  not  recall  one  in  politics  quite 
so  cool,  so  detached,  so  completely  the  technician  and 
nothing  else  as  Mr.  Hitchcock.  We  have  come  to  know 
fairly  intimately  and  familiarly  the  private  and  per- 
sonal side  of  most  of  the  men  who  figure  in  national 
politics,  or,  at  least,  we  like  to  think  we  have.  The 
first  natural  inquiry  we  make  about  any  man  is,  "What 
is  his  business?"  "How  did  he  make  his  money?" 
"How  much  has  he  got?"  "What  does  he  do  for  a 
living  ?"  We  always  want  to  know  that,  don't  we  ?  It 
may  be  none  of  our  business,  but  we  ask  the  questions 
just  the  same  —  and  usually,  before  we  are  done,  get 
an  answer. 

Usually  politicians  find  it  to  their  interest  to  keep  on 
public  view  all  the  time.  No  more  than  actors  do  they 
want  to  be  forgotten.  Frank  Hitchcock  and  Maude 
Adams  are  the  two  exceptions  to  this  rule.  Mr.  Hitch- 
cock plays  his  brief  quadrennial  season,  keeps  out  of 
the  limelight  while  he  is  on  the  stage,  and  then  dis- 
appears without  trace.  What  is  known  about  him  ? 

I  can  quickly  set  down  the  meager  data  I  have  for  an 
estimate.  He  was  graduated  from  Harvard  with  the 


io4  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

class  of  1891.  His  first  public  job,  I  think,  was  as  a 
timekeeper  on  the  construction  of  the  gray  stone  pile 
on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  that  is  the  Post  Office 
Department  Building  at  Washington.  Then  he  was 
a  clerk  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  John  G. 
Capers  told  me  one  night  at  a  public  dinner,  when 
Hitchcock  was  there,  that  the  then  rising  young  man 
"used  to  sort  bird  feathers  over  at  the  Department  of 
Agriculture."  But  that  was  only  a  bitter  pleasantry. 
Capers  and  Hitchcock  were  not  on  good  terms  at  the 
time,  because  of  some  difference  over  Republican  poli- 
tics in  South  Carolina. 

However,  Mr.  Hitchcock  is  an  amateur  ornitholo- 
gist of  some  repute,  and  a  genuine  bird-lover  with  a 
respectable  knowledge  of  bird-lore.  That  was  one  of 
his  points  of  contact  with  Theodore  Roosevelt.  This 
love  of  birds  is  his  one  revealing  quality  that  I  know 
about. 

When  I  first  knew  Mr.  Hitchcock  he  had  left  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  had  come  over  to  be 
chief  clerk  under  Secretary  Cortelyou  of  the  then  newly 
created  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor.  He 
became  a  protege  and,  in  a  sense,  a  disciple  of  Mr. 
Cortelyou,  and  followed  in  his  footsteps.  It  was  an 
understandable  association.  Any  machine  erected  or 
constructed  by  either  of  these  men  ran  on  ball  bearings 
and  rubber  tires.  It  never  clanked.  Clanking  was  a 
fault  that  neither  of  them  could  endure. 

It  was  Mr,  Cortelyou  who  put  Mr.  Hitchcock  in. 


HITCHCOCK  105 

politics.  Cortelyou  went  on  from  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor  to  manage  Roosevelt's  cam- 
paign, and  became  Postmaster-General.  Four  years 
later  Hitchcock  managed  Taft's  campaign  and  became, 
in  turn,  Postmaster-General.  Since  then  he  has  been 
on  his  own. 

Every  fourth  year  that  can  be  evenly  divided  by 
two  —  that  is,  every  Presidential  campaign  year  — 
brief,  fugitive  dispatches  under  Southern  date-lines 
begin  to  appear  in  the  newspapers.  They  say  in  sub- 
stance :  Mr.  Hitchcock  was  here  yesterday  conferring 
with  local  Republican  politicians.  He  declined  to  be 
interviewed  or  to  discuss  the  purpose  of  his  visit.  The 
gossips  and  politicians  at  Washington  read  these,  and 
begin  to  say  :  "  Hitchcock  is  rounding  up  the  Southern 
delegates."  He  is  reputed  to  be  a  master  hand  with 
them. 

I  have  heard  many  vague  stories  of  how  the  twigs  are 
limed  for  Southern  delegates  to  Republican  national 
conventions ;  how  these  wary,  shy,  sophisticated  birds 
are  captured  and  held  together  until  the  people's  choice 
is  ratified,  but  never  until  1920  did  I  come  upon  a 
definite  narrative  by  an  actual  participant. 

The  usual  elusive  fragmentary  news  came  up  from 
the  South  that  year  in  the  late  winter  and  early  spring. 
First  it  was  rumored  that  Mr.  Hitchcock  was  "for 
Lowden,"  but  this  was  denied.  The  next  surmise  had 
him  working  for  Wood,  and  when  the  fact  did  not 
materialize,  Washington  said  in  its  expressive  way. 


io6  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

"Hitchcock  has  not  lighted."  He  did  not  light  until 
late,  for  it  was  mid-March  before  he  became  associated 
with  the  Wood  campaign.  This  was  after  John  T.  King 
had  been  eliminated  and  after  Colonel  William  Cooper 
Procter's  methods  of  management  had  proved  not  so 
subtle  and  deft  as  the  situation  seemed  to  require.  As 
they  said  at  the  time,  all  the  ivory  did  not  go  into  the 
soap. 

Along  in  May  the  Senate  decided  to  inquire  into  the 
pre-convention  campaign  expenses  of  the  Presidential 
candidates,  and  Mr.  Hitchcock  was  the  very  first  wit- 
ness called.  Let  me  isolate  here  a  part  of  the  story  he 
told.  The  Senate  didn't  get  much  out  of  Mr.  Hitch- 
cock. I  quote  pertinent  bits : 

"  I  came  to  them  [the  Wood  people]  under  the  condi- 
tion, when  I  entered  the  campaign,  that  I  should  not 
be  called  upon  to  collect  campaign  funds,  and  I  have 
followed  that  policy.  After  the  announcement  of  my 
connection  with  the  campaign,  various  people  from 
time  to  time  sent  in  checks  to  me,  and  I  turned  them 
over  to  the  organization.  The  total  of  these  checks  did 
not  exceed  from  $20,000  to  $25,000  for  the  entire  cam- 
paign. 

"My  function  has  been  largely  advisory,  supervi- 
sory. I  have  endeavored  to  interest  the  political  leaders 
of  the  country  that  I  knew,  friends  of  mine  and  men 
that  I  have  known  in  previous  campaigns,  in  the  Wood 
cause.  That  has  been  my  principal  work." 

"Suppose  it  was  decided  to  set  up  contesting  delega- 


HITCHCOCK  107 

tions  [in  the  South],  would  that  question  be  referred  to 
you?" 

"  I  have  never  set  up  any  contesting  delegations,  and 
never  intend  to.  I  do  not  believe  in  that  sort  of  thing. 

"The  principal  contest  that  has  developed  since  I 
have  been  in  the  movement  is  the  contest  in  Georgia, 
and  the  organization  in  Georgia  is  headed  by  the  State 
Chairman,  who  is  recognized  by  the  National  Com- 
mittee, and  with  the  approval  of  the  National  Com- 
mitteeman,  recognized  by  our  National  Committee. 
That  organization  is  being  contested." 

"How  much  money  have  you  sent  there  ?" 

"  I  think  a  total  from  the  Washington  and  New  York 
headquarters  of  $10,000.  At  first  $5000  was  sent,  and 
then  it  was  reported  to  us  that  the  opposition  in  the 
State  was  flooding  the  State  with  money,  and  they 
asked  for  additional  funds,  and  we  sent  $5000  addi- 
tional." 

"What  salaries  do  the  Wood  headquarters  pay  ?" 

"I  do  not  know  a  single  salary.  I  do  not  get  any, 
naturally.  I  furnish  my  own  room,  and  I  have  received 
no  money  whatever  from  the  Wood  organization  for 
any  purpose." 

Well,  there  you  are.  I  might  go  on  and  give  details 
of  the  trafficking  as  they  were  related  by  other  wit- 
nesses, but  that  would  be  aside  from  my  present  point. 
Mr.  Hitchcock  did  not  figure  in  the  squalid  details. 
He  was  not  there. 

What  else  he  is  interested  in  besides  politics  I  don't 


io8  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

know.  Like  a  far-off  planetary  body  sweeping  along 
its  solitary  orbit,  he  is  discernible  for  a  brief  period 
every  fourth  year  in  the  umbra  or  penumbra  of  some 
Presidential  candidate.  If  he  picks  a  dead  one,  as, 
poor  dear,  he  so  frequently  does,  he  goes  out  like  a 
candle  about  the  middle  of  June.  In  the  last  Presi- 
dential campaign  he  made  a  momentary  reappearance 
in  July.  I  heard  of  him  sitting  on  the  front  row  when 
Harding  was  notified  of  his  nomination  at  Marion. 
And  even  while  we  look  he  fades  away  into  the  void, 
softly,  softly,  softly. 

What  happens  to  him  ?  Where  does  he  go  ?  There  is 
your  problem  and  your  mystery. 


NORRIS:  A  NATIVE  PRODUCT 

HOMESPUN  is  the  best  wear.  The  important  thing  about 
common  people  is  that  there  are  so  many  of  them  and, 
like  common  things,  they  are  so  necessary.  They  bear 
all  the  burdens.  All  over  the  world  this  is  the  day  of 
common  men.  All  values  are  reckoned  in  averages.  An 
English  observer,  my  friend  Philip  Gibbs,  recently 
among  us,  has  noted  rightly  enough: 

"It  is  a  nation  of  nobodies,  great  with  the  power  of 
the  common  man  and  the  plain  sense  that  governs  his 
way  of  life.  Other  nations  are  still  ruled  by  their 
'somebodies'  —  by  their  pomposities  and  high  pan- 
jandrums. But  it  is  the  nobodies  whose  turn  is  coming 
in  history,  and  America  is  on  their  side." 

By  "nobodies"  Gibbs  means,  of  course,  the  aver- 
age run  of  mankind.  He  has  phrased  it  badly,  for 
among  us,  certainly,  the  "nobodies,"  as  he  calls  them, 
are  in  the  aggregate  the  Great  Somebody.  I  am  not 
skilled  enough  in  the  terminology  of  "classes"  to 
know  where  the  proletariat  ends  and  the  bourgeoisie 
begins.  I  do  not  take  any  stock  in  the  present-day 
effort  to  divide  us  into  layers  or  strata  with  class  dis- 
tinctions. My  hero  is  the  average  man. 

With  this  brief  prelude  I  present  to  you  George 
William  Norris,  the  junior  Senator  from  Nebraska.  I 
submit  and  proclaim  that  Norris  is  the  Average  Ameri- 
can, and  as  such  I  celebrate  him.  If  you  want  to  know 


i io  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

America,  you  must  know  Norris  first.  Not  only  is  he 
the  Average  American,  but  he  is  the  average  of  all  the 
average  home-bred  citizens  of  the  Republic.  He  is  the 
least  common  multiple,  the  lowest  common  denomi- 
nator, the  greatest  common  divisor. 

What  Norris  thinks,  what  Norris  believes,  is  what, 
in  the  long  run,  a  clear  majority  of  the  country  thinks 
and  believes.  He  is  not  an  extraordinary  person.  If 
you  think  that,  you  miss  the  point.  He  is  the  supreme, 
perfect  type  of  the  ordinary  person,  and  a  most  useful 
man  to  know  and  watch  in  this  time  of  social  and 
economic  flux  and  change  and  bewilderment  and  up- 
heaval. If  you  do  not  know  him,  I  am  doing  you  a 
favor  to  introduce  you  to  him.  In  a  large  way  of 
speaking,  nothing  that  vitally  affects  all  of  us  can 
come  to  pass  in  this  country  unless  the  Norris  type 
approves  of  it.  He  is  the  symbol  of  the  forces  which 
make  final  decisions  with  us. 

Get  on  any  train  in  the  corn  and  hog  States  any- 
where between  Chicago  and  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  and 
you  will  find  a  dozen  men  like  George  William  Norris. 
They  are  earnest  folk,  probably  have  a  Sunday-School 
class  at  home,  and  smoke  five-cent  cigars  with  a  relish 
which  is  the  truest  and  surest  visible  manifestation 
among  adult  males  of  real  leaders  of  the  simple  life. 
They  have  a  first-hand  grasp  of  the  simple  elements  of 
public  affairs  and  a  rough-working  knowledge  of  na- 
tional governmental  machinery  and  procedure.  They 
do  not  know  the  subtleties  and  chicanery  and  the 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Ewing 

SENATOR  GEORGE  W.  NORMS 


NORR1S  in 

wheels  within  wheels  of  politics  as  it  is  played  in  the 
East. 

There  aren't  many  men  like  Norris  in  the  large 
Eastern  cities,  at  least  not  in  politics.  But  in  the  Mid- 
dle West  they  are  becoming,  if  they  are  not  already, 
the  dominant  type.  They  are  plain,  simple  people  who 
have  worked  hard  all  their  lives  and  who  have  known 
what  it  is  to  be  poor,  but  not  the  squalid,  sordid  pov- 
erty of  the  congested  East  that  kills  hope  and  crushes 
the  life  and  strength  and  self-respect  out  of  men.  I 
should  say  that  the  strongest  characteristic  of  men  of 
the  Norris  type  (it  seems  impossible  to  differentiate  him 
in  any  way  from  the  type)  is  a  strong  and  active  feeling 
of  fellowship.  They  are  marked  by  a  notable  desire  to 
be  helpful  to  those  who  have  not  been  so  fortunate. 
As  nearly  as  possible  they  want  every  one  to  share  and 
share  alike  the  common  privileges  of  human  society. 
They  are  good,  useful  citizens  —  not  "prominent  citi- 
zens," but  useful  citizens.  There  is  a  whole  world  of 
difference. 

If  George  Norris  ever  declares  for  the  proletariat 
revolution,  I,  for  one,  will  begin  to  make  ready  for  its 
coming.  Norris  is  the  surest  political  barometer  in  the 
United  States.  He  can't  help  being  it.  It  is  an  inherent 
quality,  like  the  wetness  of  water.  He  is  on  the  domi- 
nant and  majority  side  in  any  great  mass  movement 
in  this  country  under  the  operation  of  a  natural  law 
that  is  just  as  sure  and  irresistible  and  inevitable  as 
the  law  which  compels  water  to  seek  its  own  level. 


H2  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Mr.  Wilson  could  not  get  the  country  in  a  mind  to 
go  to  war  until  Norris  and  his  like  were  clearly  satisfied 
that  it  was  the  right  thing  to  do.  When  they  saw  the 
righteousness  of  it,  the  rest  was  easy.  I  believe  you 
could  have  found  nowhere  any  clearer  vision  and 
understanding  of  the  processes  of  mind  of  the  country 
at  large,  while  public  opinion  was  making  on  the 
league  of  nations  and  the  peace  treaty,  than  by  ob- 
serving Norris's  mental  reactions  as  he  changed  from 
an  ardent  believer  in  the  league  idea  to  one  of  the 
"bitter-ender"  opponents  of  the  league  and  treaty. 
Take  his  own  words: 

"I  started  this  thing  in  good  faith.  No  man  had 
more  honest  and  beautiful  intentions  than  I  had  when 
that  peace  conference  met  at  Versailles.  No  man  in  all 
the  world  was  more  anxious  to  have  a  permanent  peace 
than  I.  No  man  under  any  flag  would  sacrifice  more, 
according  to  what  he  had  to  sacrifice,  than  I  would  to 
have  brought  about  a  league  that  was  honest  and 
honorable.  I  believed  that  our  allies  were  honest  and 
honorable.  I  thought  they  were  square;  I  thought 
they  were  fair;  and  when  the  league  of  nations  part  of 
the  treaty  was  first  given  to  the  world,  while  I  dis- 
liked some  of  it  very  much,  I  was  almost  on  the  point 
of  swallowing  it.  I  was  willing  to  sacrifice  almost  any- 
thing to  get  the  right  kind  of  league  of  nations.  To  me 
it  seemed  that  Article  X  was  almost  damnable.  I 
thought  that  the  article  providing  for  disarmament 
might  not  mean  anything,  and  other  things  the  same 


NORR1S  113 

way;  and  yet  I  said  to  myself,  'They  are  honest,  we 
are  honest,  and  if  all  of  us  are  going  into  this  honestly, 
I  can  overlook  a  good  many  things  that  don't  seem 
right.' 

"Later  it  developed  what  they  had  done  in  making 
the  treaty;  but  although  it  seemed  to  me  there  were  a 
lot  of  sins  even  in  the  league  as  they  had  promulgated 
it,  when  the  treaty  came  forth  it  made  the  league  look 
like  a  banner  of  purity  compared  to  the  deceit,  the 
wrong,  and  the  sin  that  was  bound  up  in  that  treaty. 

"When  I  discovered  that  these  same  men  who  had 
talked  eloquently  here  to  us  had  in  their  pockets  secret 
treaties  when  they  did  it;  when  I  discovered  that  they 
pulled  out  those  secret  treaties  at  the  peace  table,  in 
contravention  and  in  contradiction  to  every  agree- 
ment that  they  made  when  we  entered  the  peace  con- 
ference; when  I  saw  that  they  were  demanding  that 
these  secret  treaties  be  legalized;  and,  more  than  all, 
when  I  saw  our  own  President  lie  down  and  give  in  and 
submit  to  the  disgrace,  the  dishonor,  the  crime,  and 
the  sin  of  that  treaty,  then  I  said:  'Great  God!  I 
don't  believe  I  want  to  have  any  dealings  with  any  of 
you  people.  I  am  suspicious  of  you  all  the  way  through. 
You  are  dishonest.  You  have  not  been  fair  with  us  or 
with  the  world.  You  have  been  wicked.  You  have 
concluded  to  act  here  just  the  same  as  you  were  acting 
in  barbarous  days,  after  proclaiming  to  us  and  after 
we  believed  that  you  were  in  earnest  and  fighting  for 
democracy  to  build  a  peace,  a  world  peace,  a  league  of 


114  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

nations  that  would  bring  peace  and  happiness  forever 
to  a  suffering  people.' 

"  I  think  any  honest  believer  in  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  when  he  understands  what  we  are  asked  to  do, 
would  suffer  death  before  he  would  advise  us  to  give 
our  official  sanction  to  the  treaty  as  it  stands." 

Now  the  sole  interest  and  value  of  Norris's  state  of 
mind  and  of  his  fervent  declaration  about  the  sin  in- 
herent in  the  treaty  is  that  he  believes  it  to  his  depths 
and  that  he  would  go  to  the  stake  for  his  conviction. 
The  seat  of  popular  opinion  and  political  control  in 
the  United  States  resides  and  has  resided  for  some 
years  in  that  vast  stretch  of  fertile  territory  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  intermountain  States  of  the 
West.  It  is  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  States  on 
either  side  of  it.  That  is  the  heart  of  this  country; 
that  is  the  producing  area;  that  is  where  the  corn  and 
the  hogs  and  the  wheat  and  the  ore  and  the  oil  and  the 
cotton  and  the  sugar  come  from.  We  are  what  we  are 
as  a  people  because  they  are  what  they  are.  Roughly 
speaking,  the  rest  of  us  outside  of  that  land  of  fatness 
derive  our  sustenance  and  existence  by  trafficking  in 
and  fabricating  what  they  produce.  Now  Norris  is  of 
the  very  pith  and  marrow  and  sinew  of  these  people. 
He  thinks  as  they  think,  he  lives  as  they  live,  his 
processes  of  thought  are  their  processes  of  thought. 

Norris  is  of  average  size,  well-muscled  and  wiry. 
He  is  quiet  in  manner,  with  an  open,  frank,  friendly 
face.  His  rough  hair  is  gray.  He  is  as  industrious  as  a 


NORRIS  115 

beaver.  When  one  comes  to  describe  him,  one  sees 
that  there  isn't  an  extraordinary  thing  about  him.  He 
is  the  average  American  born  of  clean  stock  in  a  farm- 
ing country  who  has  lived  all  his  life  upon  a  plane  of 
perfect  equality  and  upon  terms  of  absolute  democ- 
racy with  his  neighbors.  That  was  one  of  the  interest- 
ing things  about  the  "insurgency"  movement  which 
brought  Norris  to  the  fore  in  the  House  and  eventu- 
ally in  the  Senate.  Its  propulsive  force  and  motive 
power  came  from  average  men.  It  was  an  average 
man's  movement.  It  is  doubly  interesting  now  as  a 
social  phenomenon,  as  foreshadowing  the  present 
world-wide  groping  among  common  average  men  for 
a  more  equitable  diffusion  of  authority  and  responsi- 
bility in  self-government. 

For  a  taste  of  the  simple  quality  of  the  man  take 
this  confession  of  faith  made  the  other  day  on  the 
Senate  floor.  Norris  had  talked  for  three  days  about 
the  oppression  of  the  Koreans  and  Chinese  by  the 
Japanese.  He  had  urged  that  the  Japanese  were  try- 
ing with  all  their  might  to  stamp  out  Christianity  in 
the  Orient.  Then  this  autobiographical  revelation: 

"I  am  not  a  member  of  any  church;  I  am  not  a 
member  of  any  religious  organization;  but  my  hand 
shall  wither  and  my  lips  shall  be  sealed  in  eternal 
silence  before  I  will  ever  give  my  official  approval  to 
any  act  that  will  stamp  out  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  establish  paganism  in  its  stead.  I  hope  that  we 
can  meet  every  question  that  comes  before  us  and 


Ii6  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

decide  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong.  If  it  is  right,  then 
let  us  approve  it. 

"  I  hope  that  I  may  be  given  the  humble  privilege  of 
being  classed  as  one  of  the  followers  of  the  religion 
proclaimed  by  Abou  Ben  Adhem.  Old  Ben  Adhem 
was  awakened  in  the  night  by  an  angel.  The  angel  was 
writing  in  the  book.  Ben  Adhem  asked  what  he  was 
doing  and  the  angel  said :  '  I  am  writing  the  names  of 
those  who  love  the  Lord.'  Ben  Adhem  asked:  'Is  my 
name  written  there?'  and  the  angel  said:  'No.'  Then 
Ben  Adhem  said:  'I  pray  thee,  then,  write  me  as  one 
that  loves  his  fellow  men.'  The  angel  wrote  and  van- 
ished, and  the  next  night  Ben  Adhem  was  awakened 
again  from  his  slumber.  The  same  angel  appeared, 
and  he  bore  a  scroll,  upon  which  was  written  in  letters 
of  flaming  fire  the  names  of  those  who  loved  the  Lord, 
and,  behold,  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest." 

I  submit  that  it  discloses  an  ineradicable  and  in- 
grained simplicity  of  mind  to  tell  the  Senate  the  story 
of  Abou  Ben  Adhem  and  apply  it  to  one's  self.  But  it 
does  reveal  a  lack  of  self-consciousness  and  a  clear  self- 
knowledge. 

Norris  has  had  a  career  that  has  become  conven- 
tional in  his  part  of  the  United  States.  He  was  born  on 
a  farm  in  Sandusky  County,  Ohio,  in  1861,  and  spent 
all  of  his  early  life  on  the  farm  where  he  was  born.  He 
learned  what  real,  honest,  grubbing  work  was  at  an 
age  when  more  carefully  nurtured  children  are  being 
taught  to  cut  out  paper  flowers  and  truncated  cones 


NORRIS  117 

in  the  kindergartens.  His  father  died  when  he  was  a 
small  child,  his  only  brother  was  killed  in  the  Civil 
War,  and  his  mother  was  left  in  straitened  circum- 
stances. Young  Norris  "worked  out"  among  the 
neighboring  farmers  by  the  day  and  month  during  the 
summer,  and  attended  district  school  during  the  win- 
ter. He  acquired  enough  education  to  become  a  school- 
teacher, and  moved  West.  He  lived  in  several  of  the 
Far  Western  and  Northwestern  States,  and  taught 
school  in  abandoned  barns  and  chicken-houses  and 
other  queer  shacks  that  he  had  to  fit  up  with  his  own 
hands. 

By  what  wizardry  of  finance  this  young  itinerant 
school-teacher  saved  enough  money  to  come  back  to 
Ohio  and  pay  his  way  through  Baldwin  University  at 
Berea,  Ohio,  and  the  Northern  Indiana  Normal  School 
at  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  even  he  cannot  now  explain. 
But  he  did,  and  later  studied  law  while  teaching,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1883.  Two  years  later  he 
went  to  Nebraska  and  settled  at  McCook. 

Law  and  politics  are  virtually  identical  pursuits 
among  small-town  lawyers  who  want  to  "get  on"  in 
the  world.  Norris  quickly  became  prosecuting  attor- 
ney at  McCook.  He  held  the  place  three  terms,  and 
then  in  1895  and  again  in  1899  was  elected  a  district 
judge.  He  was  on  the  bench,  and  it  was  as  Judge 
Norris  that  he  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1903.  He 
sat  in  the  House  over  nine  years  until  1913,  when  he 
was  translated  to  the  Senate,  where  he  will  probably 


1 18  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

remain  as  long  as  he  likes.  He  attained  a  country-wide 
celebrity  in  1910  when,  on  a  Saturday  afternoon  in 
March  as  the  climax  of  the  "insurgent"  movement  in 
Congress,  he  caused  the  rules  of  the  House  to  be 
changed  in  an  important  and  essential  particular; 
diverted  from  the  office  of  the  Speaker  a  great  share  of 
its  power,  and  shook  and  humbled  and  defeated  Mr. 
Cannon  after  a  series  of  dramatic  and  exciting  scenes 
such  as  are  witnessed  in  Congress  once  in  a  generation. 
He  never  sought  publicity  or  notoriety  or  claimed 
"leadership"  because  of  that  achievement.  When  he 
had  done  what  he  set  out  to  do,  he  relapsed  into  the 
ranks.  But  since  that  day  he  has  had  to  be  reckoned 
with.  He  became  notable,  not  because  he  was  differ- 
ent, but  because  there  were  so  many  like  him  for 
whom  he  was  articulate. 

In  his  manner,  in  his  processes  of  mind,  and  in  his 
mode  of  living  he  is  as  simple,  as  plain,  as  direct,  and 
as  unassuming  as  when  he  was  teaching  the  three  R's 
in  Idaho.  He  knows  more,  of  course,  than  he  did  then. 
Hi«  mind  is  more  mature  and  has  broadened.  His  con- 
victions, however,  for  the  main  part,  are  based  on 
what  he  has  personally  known  and  seen  and  not  on 
deductions  from  wide  reading.  He  is  not  afraid  to 
think  and  do  for  himself,  because  he  has  never  known 
anything  else. 

Norris  derives  his  mental  sustenance  and  stimula- 
tion from  a  process  analogous  to  cracking  hickory 
nuts  with  his  teeth  and  picking  out  the  "goodies" 


NORRIS  liq 

with  a  hairpin.  He  gets  at  the  meat  of  a  thing  slowly 
and  by  a  laborious  process;  but  he  gets  it,  and  it's  all 
his;  he  earns  it.  No  personal  animus  or  self-interest 
has  been  disclosed  in  anything  that  he  has  said  or  done 
in  his  public  life  at  Washington.  Whether  right  or 
wrong,  to  all  appearances  he  is  disinterested  and  striv- 
ing for  what  he  conceives  to  be  the  general  welfare. 

Norris  could  not  be  called,  as  the  phrase  runs,  "a 
natural-born  leader."  He  has  never  pretended  to  be 
one;  that  is  not  his  strength  or  the  measure  of  his 
value.  He  does  not  contend  for  personal  preferment. 
He  is  always  a  part  of  the  irresistible  mass  that  shows 
the  immovable  bodies  how  to  take  a  joke. 

He  usually  does  what  he  sets  out  to  do  and  makes  a 
clean  job  of  it.  As  they  say  out  in  Red  Willow  County: 
"George  makes  good  on  his  proposition."  He  is  a 
reassuring  figure  in  public  life  in  these  troublous  days. 
He  is  also  a  darn  good  fellow,  and  I  like  him,  and  now 
that  you  have  been  introduced,  I  hope  you  will  like 
him,  too. 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB 

To  Mr.  George  B.  Christian,  Jr.,  who  has  come  out  of 
Marion  with  Mr.  Harding  to  be  Secretary  to  the  Presi- 
dent, I  can  give  one  bit  of  reassurance.  There  is  one 
thing  he  can  be  sure  of  ;  he  will  never  be  bored.  Some- 
thing or  other  will  happen  to  him  every  day.  When  he 
has  served  a  term  at  the  White  House  and  goes  out  to 
other  employment,  no  matter  what  he  has  to  do,  it  will 
seem  easy  to  him. 

Being  a  President's  interpreter  and  steersman  is  the 
most  difficult  and  trying  job  in  the  Government  serv- 
ice at  Washington.  To  men  who  make  successes  of  it, 
the  subsequent  rewards  are  great  and  satisfying,  and 
even  some  of  the  failures  seem  to  do  fairly  well  by 
themselves  when  they  resign  to  accept  more  congenial 
employment. 

The  Secretary  to  the  President  is  not  a  private  sec- 
retary, but  a  public  secretary.  His  obligations  to  Mr. 
Harding's  callers  and  correspondents  are  just  as  valid 
as  his  obligations  to  Mr.  Harding.  He  must  serve  two 
masters  and  please  both  of  them  at  peril  of  his  head. 
When  he  is  working  at  the  job  he  is  as  busy  as  a  Swiss 
bell-ringer.  He  must  know  everybody  and  everything. 
He  must  be  able  to  appraise  the  actors  on  the  Washing- 
ton stage  not  only  at  their  true  value,  but  at  their  own 
estimate  of  their  value.  He  must  know  what  is  going 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB         121 

on  in  legislation,  politics,  and  society,  and  of  all  the 
thousands  who  come  to  the  White  House  on  one  mis- 
sion or  another  he  must  unerringly  separate  the  sheep 
from  the  goats.  He  must  work  all  day  every  day  and 
keep  his  temper  and  his  health.  He  must  always 
remember  that  when  he  does  anything  praiseworthy, 
the  credit  must  go  to  the  President  and  the  Adminis- 
tration. Whenever  the  President  makes  a  mistake  or 
commits  an  indiscretion,  the  perfect  secretary  must 
offer  himself  as  the  sacrifice. 

That  is  all  Mr.  Christian  has  to  do,  and  for  it  a  grate- 
ful Government  allows  him  $7500  a  year  and  the  use  of 
two  motor  cars.  Also  he  is  invited  out  to  lunch  and  to 
dinner  more  than  is  good  for  him ;  but  that  can't  be 
helped  and  is  a  part  of  the  job. 

Mr.  Christian  has  come  to  the  job  at  a  time  when  it 
sadly  needs  to  be  restored  to  its  old  dimensions  and 
authority.  Mr.  Wilson  altered  during  his  tenure  of  the 
White  House  many  Washington  values  that  had  come 
to  be  accepted  as  permanent.  He  pared  down  the 
stature  of  many  public  and  official  figures.  No  figure 
or  personality  of  consequence  in  the  Washington 
scheme  of  things  as  it  existed  prior  to  Mr.  Wilson's 
arrival  has  been  so  obliterated,  blurred  in  outline, 
reduced  in  value,  and  decreased  in  functioning  capac- 
ity as  that  of  Secretary  to  the  President.  No  picture 
in  the  Washington  gallery  offered  less  resistance  to  the 
effacing  sponge  than  did  Mr.  Tumulty.  He  and  the 
President  between  them  made  the  secretaryship  con- 


122  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

form  to  the  geometrical  definition  of  a  point :  occupy- 
ing a  position  in  space  but  without  dimensions. 

We  here  at  Washington  are  watching  with  friendly 
eyes  to  see  if  Mr.  Christian  can  rehabilitate  his  job  and 
restore  it  to  its  old  splendor  in  the  local  scheme  of 
things.  He  has  yet  to  prove  his  quality.  We  only  know 
of  him  yet  what  he  has  told  us :  that  he  is  forty-eight 
years  old  —  eight  years  younger  than  the  President; 
that  he  was  "engaged  in  the  limestone  industry  in 
Marion  County"  until  1915,  when  he  became  private 
secretary  to  Senator  Harding,  and  was  then  trans- 
lated with  his  old-time  friend,  neighbor,  and  employer 
to  the  White  House.  That  is  the  foundation  on  which 
he  must  build. 

He  is  a  gravely  pleasant  young  man,  of  an  even 
temper,  apparently  not  easily  flustered  or  put  out  or 
excited  ;  in  many  respects  a  fairly  good  second  carbon 
copy  of  his  chief.  He  cannot  bluff  his  way  through. 
He,  like  the  President,  will  soon  come  to  be  known  for 
what  he  is.  His  value,  his  fiber,  his  quality  are  being 
searchingly  appraised.  His  relations  with  his  chief  can- 
not be  hidden.  If  the  President  trusts  him,  relies  upon 
him,  gives  him  responsibilities,  or  is  guided  by  him  in 
any  degree,  a  good  many  people  soon  come  to  know  it. 

If  Mr.  Christian  ever  comes  to  my  house  in  the  eve- 
ning to  smoke  a  pipe,  I'd  like  to  tell  him  about  some  of 
the  figures  who  have  gone  before  him  and  with  whom  I 
have  had  traffic  and  dealings.  George  B.  Cortelyou  was 
the  best  one  I  ever  knew. 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB         123 

I  would  tell  Mr.  Christian  first  how  we  all  felt  when 
President  Wilson  fell  ill  in  the  autumn  of  1920  and  all 
the  news  from  his  bedside,  which  had  become  the 
seat  of  government,  had  to  be  screened  through  Mr. 
Tumulty.  The  importance  of  the  office  of  Secretary  to 
the  President  was  thrown  into  high  relief.  It  is  a 
matter  of  public  concern  who  fills  the  job. 

Since  Mr.  Wilson  was  unable  to  transact  public 
business  in  his  office,  it  followed  that  his  only  channel 
of  news  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  world  that  affected 
his  duties  and  responsibilities  as  President  was  through 
his  secretary.  It  is  equally  true  that  the  only  source  of 
news  Congress,  the  executive  officials  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  public  had  of  Mr.  Wilson's  condition, 
his  decisions,  his  desires,  and  his  attitude  of  mind  on 
the  several  immediate,  pressing  public  problems  that 
came  to  a  head  was  through  Mr.  Tumulty. 

When  Mr.  Wilson  collapsed  on  his  return  to  Wash- 
ington after  his  breakdown  on  his  Western  trip,  the 
whole  world  was  concerned  and  alarmed.  The  Presi- 
dent had  in  his  hands  the  strings  of  control  of  events  in 
the  making  that  affected  the  destinies  and  literally  the 
lives  of  millions  of  people  at  home  and  abroad.  It  was 
not  curiosity  about  an  eminent  figure,  but  sheer,  vital, 
absorbing  self-interest  that  made  a  startled  and  appre- 
hensive world  turn  to  the  White  House  for  exact,  truth- 
ful, trustworthy  news  of  the  patient,  what  ailed  him, 
how  sick  he  really  was,  and  whether  he  would  get  well 
again. 


124  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

There  were  officials  of  the  Government  at  Washing- 
ton, the  Vice- President,  the  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
who  would  have  been  charged  with  new  and  complex 
and  difficult  duties  in  the  event  of  Mr.  Wilson's  inca- 
pacity, and  who  were  not  told  in  the  beginning  any- 
thing beyond  the  bulletins  given  out  for  publication  in 
the  newspapers.  And  these  bulletins  were  written  in 
such  language  as  to  give  rise  to  the  gravest  forebodings. 
Their  tone  and  their  phraseology  were  such  as  are 
always  reserved  to  give  warning  that  hope  has  been 
given  up. 

A  clumsy,  forbidding  mystery  was  made  out  of  the 
President's  illness,  in  which  sinister  rumors  bred  like 
maggots.  There  was  lacking  an  articulate  voice  at  the 
White  House,  a  spokesman  with  enough  vision  and 
understanding  to  perceive  his  obligations,  not  only  to 
the  President,  but  to  the  whola  people,  and  to  tell  the 
whole  truth  simply  and  sincerely  in  a  way  that  would 
command  respect  and  instant  acceptance.  There 
should  be  no  more  question  about  the  authenticity, 
validity,  and  scrupulous  accuracy  of  a  "White  House 
statement"  than  there  is  about  a  Supreme  Court 
decision. 

But  Mr.  Tumulty  was  not  wholly  to  blame.  He  had 
been  cast  for  a  role  he  was  not  qualified  to  play.  I  think 
a  summary  of  the  Washington  verdict  on  the  relations 
between  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Tumulty  would  have 
been,  "The  President  is  fond  of  Joe."  But  that  Mr. 
Tumulty  was  ever  a  counselor,  or  even  a  trusted  con- 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB         125 

fidant,  there  is  nothing  to  show.  The  relation  between 
the  two  men  had  become  fixed  at  Trenton,  before  Mr. 
Wilson  came  to  Washington,  and  neither  was  prepared 
to  make  the  change  when  it  became  necessary  greatly 
to  enlarge  and  radically  increase  the  power  and  dis- 
cretion enjoyed  by  the  Secretary. 

Mr.  Taft  had  not  been  in  the  White  House  more 
than  two  years  before  he  had  taken  on  his  third  Sec- 
retary. He  finally  found  the  man  he  needed  in  Charles 
D.  Hilles.  It  was  a  happy  day  for  Mr.  Taft  when  Mr. 
Hilles  came  to  the  Executive  offices  for  he  needed  a 
Secretary  of  capacity  as  badly  as  any  of  our  Presidents 
have  ever  needed  one. 

A  Secretary  is  largely  measured  by  his  tact  and  skill 
and  intuition  in  letting  in  to  the  President  only  those 
persons  whose  affairs  justify  invasion  of  the  Execu- 
tive's time.  Men  have  sought  an  appointment  with  the 
President  to  ask  if  he  would  allow  them  to  test  a  toy 
motor-boat  in  the  basin  of  the  fountain  at  the  rear  of 
the  White  House. 

One  fine  spring  morning  two  Congressmen  asked  one 
of  Mr.  Taft's  earlier  secretaries  for  an  appointment  to 
present  a  delegation  to  the  President.  The  request  was 
granted.  On  the  day  appointed,  the  two  Congressmen 
appeared  with  more  than  two  thousand  men  and 
women.  They  simply  overran  the  White  House  offices 
and  grounds.  Mr.  Taft,  with  great  good-nature,  shook 
hands  with  about  five  hundred  before  giving  up  the 
job.  His  whole  schedule  of  appointments  for  the  day 


126  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

was  hopelessly  disarranged.  A  great  many  other  per- 
sons suffered  inconveniences.  The  two  Congressmen 
could  not  be  made  to  see  that  they  had  imposed  upon 
the  President  or  upon  those  others  who  had  engage- 
ments with  Mr.  Taft.  A  competent  and  wary  Secre- 
tary would  have  found  out  the  size  of  the  delegation 
and  all  about  it  before  making  the  appointment. 

The  job  of  Secretary  to  the  President  has  been  made, 
and  should  be,  as  important  as  that  of  a  Cabinet  officer. 
A  present-day  Secretary  should  be  more  than  a  mere 
sublimated  stenographer.  The  office  has  no  statutory 
definition.  One  Secretary  may  be  a  good  stenographer, 
another  a  politician,  another  a  social  leader,  another  a 
nonentity,  another  a  chump.  All  these  different  varie- 
ties have  flourished  their  brief  day  in  Washington. 
The  office  has  greatly  and  visibly  increased  in  power, 
prestige,  and  importance  as  new  burdens  have  been 
thrown  upon  the  President  and  as  the  conception  of 
the  powers  of  the  office  of  the  President  itself  has  been 
enlarged. 

There  have  been  twenty-eight  different  Presidents  of 
the  United  States,  and  all  of  them  had  one  or  more 
private  secretaries,  but  the  list  of  men  to  whom  the 
office  has  proved  a  "stepping-stone"  to  further  hon- 
ors and  an  enlarged  sphere  of  life  is  a  short  one.  John 
Hay,  John  G.  Nicolay,  Horace  Porter,  Daniel  Lamont, 
George  Bruce  Cortelyou,  William  Loeb,  Jr.,  and 
Charles  D.  Hilles  are  names  that  stand  out  from  the 
list  of  those  who  have  held  the  office.  The  others  fell 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB         127 

back  into  oblivion,  or  never  emerged  from  it,  even 
while  they  were  in  the  White  House,  and  their  subse- 
quent activities  and  exploits  are  unrecorded. 

The  enlarged  dimensions  of  the  office  of  Secretary  to 
the  President  were  marked  out  by  Daniel  Lament 
when  he  came  to  Washington  in  the  first  Cleveland 
administration  as  Secretary  to  the  President.  He  had 
been  Governor  Cleveland's  Secretary  at  Albany.  In 
Mr.  Cleveland's  second  administration  Mr.  Lamont 
was  Secretary  of  War.  During  his  tenure  of  office  as 
Secretary  to  the  President,  Mr.  Lamont  to  some  extent 
made  it  an  added  Cabinet  position.  His  personal  in- 
fluence with  Mr.  Cleveland  was  on  a  par  with  that  of 
any  of  the  seven  counselors  provided  by  law. 

After  Lamont  comes  Cortelyou,  who  was  confiden- 
tial stenographer  to  Grover  Cleveland,  Secretary  to 
McKinley  and  to  Roosevelt,  Chairman  of  the  Repub- 
lican National  Committee,  Postmaster-General,  Sec- 
retary of  Commerce  and  Labor,  and  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  the  Roosevelt  Cabinet.  Mr.  Cortelyou 
was  very  nearly  the  ideal  Secretary  to  the  President. 
He  had  political  sagacity  and  experience.  He  knew 
public  men,  he  was  a  competent  executive,  and  could 
dispose  of  an  enormous  amount  of  routine  business 
without  hitch  or  flurry.  He  had  an  intimate  and  de- 
tailed knowledge  of  the  processes  of  government,  was 
careful  and  cautious  to  a  degree,  had  a  manner  that 
inspired  confidence,  and  was  always  the  master  of  him- 
self and  of  circumstances.  There  were  never  "unfor- 


128  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

tunate  slips"  when  Mr.  Cortelyou  was  in  the  White 
House  Executive  offices.  Everything  ran  as  smoothly 
as  an  eight-day  clock. 

When  Cortelyou  was  Secretary,  every  premeditated 
Presidential  utterance  was  viseed  and  verified  in  ad- 
vance of  its  publication.  Every  affirmation  of  fact 
was  authenticated.  If  McKinley  said  in  a  speech  that 
the  world's  stock  of  gold  on  such  and  such  a  date  was 
such  an  amount,  the  assertion  was  sent  to  the  Treasury 
Department  for  verification.  Every  quotation  he  used 
was  looked  up.  Every  assertion  of  historical  fact  was 
run  down  carefully.  Cortelyou  even  ventured  to  rewrite 
and  ameliorate  the  tone  of  some  of  the  Presidential 
letters.  This  was  necessary  more  often  with  Roosevelt 
than  with  McKinley. 

Loeb,  who  succeeded  Cortelyou  when  that  efficient 
private  secretary  went  into  the  Cabinet,  left  a  mixed 
impression  in  Washington.  While  he  was  Secretary  to 
Roosevelt,  the  newspapers  continually  blossomed  with 
the  headlines  "  Loeb  Takes  the  Blame."  It  would  have 
been  the  same  had  an  archangel  held  the  post.  No 
man  had  a  more  faithful  and  devoted  servant,  or  a 
more  loyal  and  untiring  assistant  than  Roosevelt  had 
in  Loeb.  Though  Loeb  customarily  figured  in  the 
newspapers  as  a  sacrificial  goat,  he  was  a  competent 
man  in  the  post  and  did  not  allow  the  dimensions  of 
the  office  to  shrink  during  his  incumbency.  He  had 
many  and  curious  adventures. 

Presidents  from  Washington  to  McKinley  had  pri- 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB         129 

vate  secretaries.  When  John  Addison  Porter  came  to 
Washington  in  1897  to  serve  William  McKinley  in  that 
capacity,  he  assumed  the  title  of  Secretary  to  the  Presi- 
dent. The  next  year  Congress  dropped  the  old  title 
and  appropriated  money  to  pay  the  salary  of  a  Secre- 
tary to  the  President. 

The  line  of  Presidential  Secretaries  begins  with 
Tobias  Lear  and  Lawrence  Lewis,  who  served  under 
Washington.  In  the  beginning  and  even  down  to 
Garfield's  time,  our  Presidents  seem  to  have  had  a 
fondness  for  bestowing  the  secretaryship  upon  young 
kinsmen.  Lawrence  Lewis  was  Washington's  "sister 
Betty's  son."  The  letter  is  preserved  in  which  the 
young  man  accepted  the  post : 

FAUQUIER  Co. 

July  24,  1797 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : 

I  return  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  kind  invita- 
tion I  received  when  last  at  Mount  Vernon  to  make  it 
my  home,  and  that  whilst  there  my  services  would  be 
acceptable.  This  invitation  was  the  more  pleasing  to 
me  from  a  desire  from  being  serviceable  to  you,  and 
from  a  hope  in  fulfilling  those  duties  assigned  me  I 
should  derive  some  improvement  by  them. 

Untutored  in  almost  every  branch  of  business,  I  can 
only  promise  a  ready  and  willing  obedience  to  any 
instruction  or  command  you  may  please  to  give.  I 
should  have  been  with  you  ere  this,  but  for  the  un- 
avoidable detention  of  my  servant's  running  away,  and 


130  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

that  at  a  time  when  I  was  nearly  ready  for  my  depar- 
ture. I  have  been  ever  since  in  pursuit  of  him  without 
success.  The  uncertainty  of  getting  a  servant  or  my 
runaway  will  probably  detain  me  until  25th  of  August, 
but  not  a  moment  longer  than  is  unavoidable. 

With  sincere  regard  for  my  Aunt,  and  family 
>  I  remain,  your  affectionate  Nephew 

LAWRENCE  LEWIS 
GEN.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Of  Tobias  Lear,  President  Washington's  principal 
private  secretary,  fugitive  glimpses  are  caught  in  the 
diaries  of  the  time.  When  the  first  Senate  met  at  New 
York  City  it  presented,  in  the  course  of  its  business, 
an  address  to  President  Washington.  The  entire 
Senate  "proceeded  in  carriages"  to  President  Wash- 
ington's house  to  make  the  presentation.  Says  Maclay 
in  his  diary : 

"We  were  received  in  the  ante-chamber.  Had  some 
little  difficulty  about  seats,  as  there  were  several  want- 
ing :  from  whence  may  be  inferred  that  the  President's 
major  domo  is  not  the  most  provident,  as  our  numbers 
were  well  enough  known.  We  had  not  been  seated 
more  than  three  minutes,  when  it  was  signified  to  us 
to  wait  on  the  President  in  his  levee  room. . . . 

"The  President  took  his  reply  out  of  his  pocket.  He 
had  his  spectacles  in  his  jacket  pocket ;  having  his  hat 
in  his  left  hand  and  the  paper  in  his  right.  He  had  too 
many  objects  for  his  hands.  He  shifted  his  hat  between 


WASHINGTON'S  HARDEST  JOB        131 

his  forearm  and  the  left  side  of  his  breast.  But  taking 
his  spectacles  from  the  case  embarrassed  him.  He  got 
rid  of  this  small  distress  by  laying  the  spectacle  case 
on  the  chimney  piece.  Colonel  Humphreys  stood  on 
his  right,  Mr.  Lear  on  his  left.  Having  adjusted  the 
spectacles,  which  was  not  very  easy,  considering  the 
engagements  on  his  hands,  he  read  the  reply  with 
tolerable  exactness,  and  without  much  emotion." 

Thus  early  in  our  national  life  was  the  fashion  set  of 
criticizing  the  Secretary  for  anything  that  goes  wrong 
at  the  White  House.  He  should  have  provided  more 
chairs  for  the  Senators.  Here  is  a  crisply  drawn  picture 
of  President  Washington's  secretaries  in  a  social  aspect: 

"We  went  to  the  President's  to  dinner.  The  com- 
pany were :  President  and  Mrs.  Washington,  Vice- 
President  and  Mrs.  Adams,  the  Governor  and  his  wife, 
Mr.  Jay  and  wife,  Mr.  Langdon  and  wife,  Mr.  Dal  ton 
and  a  lady,  perhaps  his  wife,  and  Mr.  Smith,  Bassett, 
myself,  Lear  and  Lewis,  the  President's  two  secretaries. 
The  President  and  Mrs.  Washington  sat  opposite  each 
other,  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  The  two  secretaries, 
one  at  each  end.  It  was  a  great  dinner,  and  the  best  of 
its  kind  ever  I  was  at. ...  It  was  the  most  solemn  dinner 
ever  I  sat  at.  Not  an  health  drank  —  scarce  a  word 
said,  until  the  cloth  was  taken  away.  . . .  The  President 
kept  a  fork  in  his  hand,  when  the  cloth  was  taken 
away,  I  thought  for  the  purpose  of  picking  nuts.  He 
eats  no  nuts,  but  played  with  the  fork,  striking  on  the 
edge  of  the  table  with  it." 


I32  WASHINGTON  CLOSE  UPS 

When  Mr.  Hilles  became  Secretary  to  President  Taft 
a  woman  in  Virginia  whom  he  did  not  know  wrote  to 
him  to  say  that  she  knew  the  President  had  at  last 
found  the  right  man  because  of  "your  prompt  atten- 
tion and  personally  written  reply  to  my  letter  to  you 
endorsing  the  J.  V.  Bickford  site  for  the  new  post-office 
at  Hampton,  Virginia."  This  same  correspondent  sug- 
gested that  "in  order  to  obtain  the  consolation  of 
philosophy,"  Mr.  Hilles  should  read  Leviticus,  i6th 
chapter :  2Oth  to  22d  verse.  He  found  this : 

"20.  And  when  he  had  made  an  end  of  reconciling 
the  holy  place  and  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation, 
and  the  altar,  he  shall  bring  the  live  goat. 

"21.  And  Aaron  shall  lay  both  his  hands  upon  the 
head  of  the  live  goat,  and  confess  over  him  all  the 
iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel  and  all  their  trans- 
gressions in  all  their  sins,  putting  them  upon  the  head 
of  the  goat,  and  shall  send  him  away  by  the  hand  of  a 
fit  man  into  the  wilderness. 

"22.  And  the  goat  shall  bear  upon  him  all  their 
iniquities  unto  a  land  not  inhabited ;  and  he  shall  let  go 
the  goat  in  the  wilderness." 

As  usual  when  an  apposite  quotation  can  be  found 
from  the  Bible,  there  is  really  nothing  more  to  say. 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY 

WE  are  John  Hicks  and  wife  from  Hicksville.  We  have 
come  to  the  national  capital  to  see  the  sights.  We  came 
on  a  round-trip  excursion  ticket  that  allows  us  five 
days  here  when  this  beautiful  city  is  all  abloom  and 
June  is  at  its  best.  We  must  see  everything  that  is  to 
be  seen,  and  that  means  that  we  must  carefully  parcel 
out  our  time. 

We  go  through  the  State,  Army,  and  Navy  buildings, 
and  take  a'  ride  in  a  sight-seeing  car  through  the  resi- 
dence district.  We  find  that  we  must  go  up  in  the 
Washington  Monument,  visit  Mount  Vernon  and 
Arlington,  see  them  make  the  money  at  the  Bureau  of 
Engraving  and  Printing,  go  through  the  Treasury 
vaults  and  be  allowed  to  hold  a  package  containing 
$3,000,000  in  our  own  hands,  and  —  but  before  we  go 
anywhere  else  we  must  go  to  the  Capitol.  In  the  cen- 
tral rotunda  we  are  accosted  by  an  affable  and  vol- 
uble guide.  He  has  already  collected  the  nucleus  of  a 
following,  and  tells  us  that  he  is  just  about  to  start  on  a 
trip  "to  all  points  of  interest  about  the  historic  build- 
ing." We  join  him.  It  is  only  twenty- five  cents,  and  he 
shows  you  everything.  We  see  the  statues  and  the  big 
pictures  on  the  walls,  and  the  whispering  stones,  and 
Senator  La  Follette  emerging  hurriedly  from  his  com- 
mittee room,  with  a  statesmanlike  frown  on  his  brow, 


134  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

and  then  we  are  ready  to  go  into  the  gallery  of  the 
House. 

It  isn't  a  bit  as  you  would  expect  it  to  be.  We  all  get 
seats  in  the  front  row  of  the  gallery  and  look  down  on 
the  floor  of  the  big  chamber.  It  is  nearly  empty.  A 
little  knot  of  men  are  gathered  in  the  center  of  the 
House,  and  two  of  them  are  on  their  feet  talking  at  one 
another.  Sometimes  their  voices  rise  so  that  we  can 
hear  what  they  say,  but  we  don't  understand  what  it 
means.  For  the  most  part  they  wrangle  in  tones  that 
do  not  carry  to  us.  Where  is  Cannon?  Where  is  the 
Speaker?  The  guide  explains  that  the  Speaker  does 
not  preside  when  the  House  is  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole.  We  don't  ask  him  what  that  means,  because 
we  don't  want  to  show  our  ignorance.  A  little  gray- 
headed  man,  with  a  square  gray  beard,  and  wearing 
gold-rimmed  spectacles,  is  in  the  Speaker's  chair. 
That  is  Mann  of  Illinois,  says  the  guide.  Who  is  he 
and  what  did  he  ever  do  ?  Why,  says  the  guide,  he  is 
the  Great  Objector.  And  what  does  he  object  to,  we 
ask  him?  Everything,  says  the  guide.  -, 

We  sit  there  nearly  an  hour  trying  to  find  out  what's 
going  on.  We  learn  why  the  newspapers  back  home  do 
not  print  a  detailed  and  comprehensive  record  day  by 
day  of  what  is  said  on  the  floor  in  the  debates  in  the 
two  branches  of  Congress.  Here  is  just  exactly  what 
happened  while  we  sat  in  the  gallery  watching  the  big 
men  of  the  country  making  the  laws  of  the  land  : 

The  House,  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  House 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY          135 

on  the  state  of  the  Union  and  having  under  consid- 
eration the  bill  (H.R.  71177)  making  appropriations 
for  sundry  civil  expenses  of  the  Government  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  and  for  other  purposes : 

Mr.  Blank.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  unanimous  con- 
sent to  proceed  for  ten  minutes. 

The  Chairman.  Is  there  objection  ? 

Mr.  Dash.  I  shall  have  to  object  to  that. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  ask  unanimous  consent  to  proceed  for 
five  minutes. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  shall  object. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  move  to  strike  out  the  last  word. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  has  already  made 
that  motion. 

Mr.  Blank.  Then  the  last  two  words. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  make  the  point  of  order  that  that  is 
not  in  order. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  sustains  the  point  of  order. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  make  the  point  of  no  quorum.  I  pro- 
pose to  answer  this  speech,  and  you  cannot  keep  me 
from  it  — 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  is  out  of  order. 

Mr.  Blank.  Except  by  resorting  to  technical  matters. 

Mr.  Doe.  I  suggest  to  the  gentleman  from  Illinois 
that  he  wait  until  the  gentleman  from  California  can  be 
present,  and  then  we  will  have  unanimous  consent. 

Mr.  Blank.  Oh,  I  could  not  wait. 

The  Chairman.  This  discussion  is  entirely  out  of 
order,  and  the  gentleman  will  please  be  seated.  The 


136  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

gentleman  from  Illinois  makes  a  point  of  order  of  no 
quorum.  The  Chair  will  count.  (After  counting.)  One 
hundred  and  forty-two  gentlemen  are  present ;  a 
quorum.  The  Clerk  will  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Salisbury,  N.C.,  post-office :  For  site  and  continua- 
tion of  building  under  present  limit,  $50,000. 

Mr.  Blank.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  move  to  strike  out  the 
last  word.  Now,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  speech 
was  evidently  prepared  in  the  office  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  I  want  to  read  what  the  Attorney-General 
thinks  about  the  — 

Mr.  Dash.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  that  the  amend- 
ment of  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  may  be  reported. 

Mr.  Doe.  It  is  too  late. 

Mr.  Dash.  The  amendment  has  not  yet  been  re- 
ported. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  moved  to  strike  out  the  last  word,  and 
I  am  making  the  motion  in  the  usual  way. 

Mr.  Dash.  What  is  the  last  word  ?  I  ask  that  for  the 
reason  that  the  gentleman  must  confine  himself  to  the 
subject  of  his  amendment. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  move  to  strike  out  the  word  "dollars." 

Mr.  Dash.  We  cannot  proceed  in  any  other  way. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  offers 
an  amendment,  which  the  Clerk  will  report. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Page  9,  line  n,  strike  out  the  word  "dollars." 

Mr.  Blank,  And  upon  a  motion  like  that  to  strike 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY          137 

out  the  word  "dollars"  it  is  perfectly  proper  to  discuss 
the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States.  I  want  to 
show  what  he  thinks  about  himself.  I  read  now  from 
the  first  column  on  page  7561  of  to-day's  Record, 
referring  to  my  criticisms  of  him : 

And  what  seems  strange  to  me  is  that  when  at  last 
we  have  a  strong,  able,  vigorous,  and  thoroughly  in 
earnest  Attorney-General  — 

Mr.  Dash.  I  make  the  point  of  order  that  the  gentle- 
man is  not  addressing  himself  to  the  amendment.  I 
want  to  say  to  the  gentleman  that  it  is  the  desire  of  all 
Members  of  this  House  to  conclude  the  reading  of  this 
bill,  and  it  will  be  concluded  inside  of  an  hour ;  and  if 
he  will  wait  until  we  conclude  the  reading  of  the  bill,  I 
will  have  no  objection  to  his  having  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  in  which  to  address  the  committee. 

Mr.  Blank.  But  if  the  gentleman  does  not  have 
objection,  somebody  else  will. 

Mr.  Dash.  The  gentleman  is  a  Member  of  the  House, 
and  he  ought  not  to  try,  in  violation  of  the  rules,  to 
delay  the  further  consideration  of  this  bill. 

Mr.  Blank.  But  this  speech  comes  into  the  Record 
in  violation  of  the  rules. 

Mr.  Doe.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  unanimous  consent 
that,  after  the  consideration  of  the  bill  shall  have  been 
completed  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  the  gentle- 
man from  Illinois  (Mr.  Blank)  may  have  ten  minutes. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  will  not  object  to  that. 

Mr.  Roe.  I  object. 


138  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Mr.  Blank.  I  insist  on  my  right  to  the  floor  now. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Minnesota 
makes  the  point  of  order  that  the  gentleman  from  Illi- 
nois is  not  speaking  in  order  to  the  amendment.  The 
Chair  will  remind  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  that 
general  debate  has  been  concluded  upon  this  bill  and 
that  the  universal  rule  in  consideration  of  the  bill  by 
paragraphs  is  that  the  debate  must  be  confined  to  the 
bill.  The  Chair  hopes  the  gentleman  will  confine  him- 
self to  the  bill  and  that  the  gentleman  will  proceed  in 
order. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  have  much  respect  for  the  presiding 
officer  and  for  his  knowledge  of  the  rules,  yet  I  must 
call  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  the  rule  may  be 
as  the  Chair  states  —  and  I  do  not  promise  to  question 
that  matter,  because  my  colleague  from  Illinois,  the 
chairman  at  the  present  time,  knows  much  more  about 
the  rules  than  I  do  —  but  the  Chair  will  agree  with  me 
that  upon  a  motion  to  strike  out  the  last  word  it  is  the 
invariable  custom  of  the  House  to  permit  members  to 
discuss  matters  that  do  not  pertain  to  that  paragraph. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  is  under  the  impression 
that  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  is  in  error  in  thinking 
that.  Undoubtedly  upon  a  motion  to  strike  out  the 
last  word  it  is  in  order  to  discuss  the  merits  of  a  para- 
graph. 

Mr.  Blank.  Then  I  move  to  strike  out  the  paragraph. 

The  Chairman.  Undoubtedly  on  the  motion  to  strike 
out  the  last  word  of  a  paragraph  it  is  in  order  to  discuss 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY          139 

the  merits  of  the  paragraph,  but  it  is  not  in  order  in 
the  committee,  on  the  reading  of  an  appropriation  bill, 
general  debate  having  been  concluded,  to  discuss  ex- 
traneous matters  not  relating  to  the  subject  under 
consideration  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  hope  the  gentleman  from  Minnesota 
will  not  object  to  my  speaking  for  ten  minutes.  The 
House  will  have  sufficient  time  — 

Mr.  Dash.  I  will  say  to  the  gentleman  from  Illinois 
I  will  not  object  to  his  proceeding  for  ten  minutes  if 
that  will  be  the  end  of  it. 

Mr.  Blank.  That  will  be  the  end  for  to-day. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  have  no  objection. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  asks 
unanimous  consent  to  speak  for  ten  minutes  to  discuss 
the  subject  he  has  under  consideration.  Is  there  objec- 
tion? 

Mr.  Doe.  I  object.  I  know  that  the  Representa- 
tive — 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  will  be  in  order ;  he 
has  objected. 

Mr.  Blank.  Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  unanimous 
consent  at  the  conclusion  of  the  reading  of  the  bill  for 
ten  minutes. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  asks 
unamimous  consent  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the  read- 
ing of  the  bill  he  may  have  ten  minutes  — 

Mr.  Doe.  I  object,  until  the  gentleman  from  Cali- 
fornia is  present  — 


140  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Tennessee  will 
suspend  — 

Mr.  Blank.  The  gentleman  from  California  is  never 
here ;  he  is  always  away  making  political  speeches  for 
his  party. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  asks 
unanimous  consent  upon  the  conclusion  of  the  reading 
of  the  bill  that  he  may  have  permission  to  address  the 
House  for  ten  minutes. 

Mr.  Doe.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  object. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  get  in  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  reading  of  the  bill,  because  I  shall 
ask  for  permission  again. 

The  Chairman.  Without  objection,  the  amendment 
is  withdrawn,  and  the  Clerk  will  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

San  Angelo,  Texas,  post-office  and  court-house :  For 
site  and  continuation  of  building  under  present  limit, 
$25,000. 

Mr.  Blank.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  move  to  strike  out  the 
last  word.  The  gentleman  from  California  is  here. 
Now  I  ask  for  permission  to  proceed  for  ten  minutes. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  asks 
unanimous  consent  that  he  may  proceed  for  ten  min- 
utes. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  will  ask  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  if 
he  will  not  qualify  his  request  and  make  it  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  reading  of  the  bill,  which  will  be  very 
soon  now. 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY          141 

Mr.  Blank.  I  should  prefer  to  go  ahead  now. 

Mr.  Dash.  I  will  say  to  the  gentleman,  of  course  it 
would  be  manifestly  unfair  for  him  to  proceed  for  ten 
minutes  and  then  deny  the  gentleman  from  California 
the  same  right,  which  would  make  twenty  minutes,  if 
made  prior  to  the  conclusion  of  the  consideration  of 
this  bill ;  but  if  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  will  re- 
new his  request  of  a  moment  ago  that  he  may  have 
ten  minutes  at  the  conclusion  of  the  bill,  I  am  satisfied 
there  will  be  no  objection. 

Mr.  Blank.  I  will  make  the  request  for  fifteen  min- 
utes. 

The  Chairman.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois  asks 
unanimous  consent  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the  read- 
ing of  the  bill  he  may  proceed  to  address  the  committee 
for  fifteen  minutes.  Is  there  objection  ? 

Mr.  Doe.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  ask  also  that  the  Repre- 
sentative from  California  be  allowed  fifteen  minutes. 

The  Chairman.  In  that  connection  the  gentleman 
from  Tennessee  asks  that  the  request  be  modified  so 
that  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  may  have  fifteen  min- 
utes, and  the  gentleman  from  California  fifteen.  Is 
there  objection  ?  (After  a  pause.)  The  Chair  hears 
none  and  it  is  so  ordered. 

All  of  this  time,  and  the  space  occupied  in  reporting 
what  was  said,  represents  the  efforts  made  by  a  Demo- 
cratic member  of  the  House  to  attack  the  Attorney- 
General.  The  newspapers  that  reported  the  incident 


142  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

at  all  dismissed  it  in  a  few  lines.  I  have  quoted  it 
in  extenso  here  to  show  how  a  large  part  of  the  time  of 
the  House  is  occupied. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  such  a  generally  false  im- 
pression of  Congress  is  diffused  throughout  the  country 
is  the  practice  of  the  newspapers  of  printing  only  the 
interesting  things  that  happen  on  the  floor  of  the  two 
chambers.  When  there  is  a  good  debate  over  some 
subject  on  which  interest  runs  high,  or  when  there  are 
exciting  clashes  between  the  Democrats  and  the  Re- 
publicans, columns  of  newspaper  space  are  devoted 
to  an  account  of  what  takes  place.  When  the  public 
outside  of  Washington  reads  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives it  is  always  in  connection  with  some  scene 
or  debate  that  is  dramatic  or  important  or  picturesque 
and  interesting.  Therefore,  when  the  average  reader 
of  newspapers  comes  to  Washington  on  a  visit  and  sits 
for  an  hour  in  the  gallery  and  hears  some  such  inter- 
change as  has  been  printed  above,  he  goes  away 
puzzled  and  confused. 

When  the  guide  said  it  was  time  to  be  going,  if  we 
wanted  to  climb  to  the  dome  or  go  in  and  see  the 
Supreme  Court  for  a  little  while,  we  told  him  we  didn't 
think  much  of  what  we  had  seen  and  heard,  but  he  told 
us  it  was  not  always  like  that.  Sometimes,  he  said,  all 
of  the  members  were  in  their  places  on  the  floor,  and 
there  was  plenty  of  excitement  and  high  debate.  We 
told  him  we  wished  that  we  might  have  seen  something 
like  that  going  on.  The  guide  pointed  across  to  the 


FROM  THE  HOUSE  GALLERY          143 

press  gallery  above  the  Speaker's  chair.  "There  is 
just  one  sure  way  of  knowing  when  something  inter- 
esting is  about  to  happen  in  the  House,"  he  said. 
"When  you  see  the  correspondents  begin  to  come  out 
of  their  own  room  back  of  their  gallery  and  fill  up  their 
seats,  then  you  may  be  sure  that  something  is  about  to 
happen  on  the  floor,  and  when  you  see  them  get  up  and 
leave  the  gallery,  no  matter  how  noisy  it  may  seem  on 
the  floor,  you  may  be  sure  that  nothing  else  is  going  to 
happen  for  a  while  at  any  rate." 

We  looked  across  to  the  press  gallery,  but  there  was 
only  one  young  fellow  in  it,  and  he  seemed  to  be  draw- 
ing pictures  on  a  piece  of  yellow  paper.  When  he  got 
up,  yawned  openly  at  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  disappeared  through  a  swinging  door,  we  went 
away  too. 


REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE 

WHEN  the  Mukden  viceroy  went  to  the  station  to  meet 
Prince  Tsaichen,  on  his  way  home  to  Peking  from  the 
coronation  of  King  George  at  London,  the  Prince 
sobbed  and  wept  because  (i)  England  only  gave  him 
thirty-sixth  place  at  the  coronation,  immediately  be- 
fore the  "lost  state"  of  Egypt ;  (2)  at  the  King's  ban- 
quet, and  again  at  the  Foreign  Office  banquet,  he  was 
invited  without  his  staff,  though  the  envoys  of  Japan, 
Europe,  and  America  brought  their  suites.  Moreover, 
the  language  used  toward  him  was  cold  ;  and  when  he 
was  decorated  he  alone  (and  not  his  suite)  received  an 
order.  This,  he  complained,  contrasted  very  unfavor- 
ably with  that  received  at  King  Edward's  coronation  ; 
and  even  with  that  (less  courteous)  at  King  Edward's 
funeral.  Consequently  he  kept  his  blinds  down  all  the 
way  in  the  Russian  train,  and  would  not  see  any  one. 
He  blamed  the  London  Minister,  Liu  Yuh-Lin,  for  not 
having  made  it  clear  that  he  was  an  Imperial  Prince. 

This  never  would  have  happened  had  Prince  Tsai- 
chen been  visiting  us.  There  is  a  reason ;  his  name  is 
Adee. 

If  you  were  living  at  Washington  and  held  an  official 
position  of  sufficient  rank  and  importance,  it  might 
easily  happen  that  you  would  be  called  upon  to  enter- 
tain at  dinner  some  evening  an  ambassador,  a  Korean 
prince,  a  pretender  to  the  throne  of  Portugal,  an  associ- 


REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE  145 

ate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  a  senator  from 
Oklahoma  who  were  not  on  speaking  terms,  an  exiled 
Shah  of  Persia,  the  Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  Peoria,  the  Assistant  Fish  Commissioner,  a 
retired  admiral  of  the  Navy,  and  the  president-general 
of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution.  Assum- 
ing that  they  were  all  sticklers  (and  this  is  a  safe  as- 
sumption) for  precedence,  how  to  seat  them  would  be  a 
problem,  unless  you  knew  and  were  in  the  good  graces 
of  one  certain  man. 

His  name  is  Adee. 

Assume  that  you  have  been  elected  President  of  the 
United  States.  One  of  your  duties  would  be  to  write 
letters  of  congratulation  to,  say,  the  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Coburg  on  the  birth  of  a  son,  or  you  might  have  to  con- 
done with  the  Duchess  of  Schleswig-Holstein  on  the 
death  of  her  great-uncle,  the  Archduke  of  Something 
Else,  or  with  the  Emperor  of  Abyssinia  on  the  sudden 
demise  of  his  favorite  wife.  These  are  not  little  notes 
that  may  be  "dashed  off."  There  are  certain  fixed  gra- 
dations of  grief  or  happiness  to  be  felt  by  rulers  and  po- 
tentates that  have  been  carefully  formulated  through 
years  of  international  correspondence.  The  President 
of  the  United  States  is  much  more  grieved  when  the 
King  of  England  loses  a  cousin  than  he  is  when  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Siam  loses  a  son. 

There  is  only  one  person  among  us  who  knows  pre- 
cisely how  much  sorrier  the  President  is.  His  name  is 
Adee. 


146  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Alvey  Augustus  Adee,  Second  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State,  is  a  unique  figure  at  Washington.  He  is  the  com- 
plete diplomatist.  He  is  our  only  permanent  official. 
He  is  the  man  who  is  declared  not  to  exist,  the  indis- 
pensable person.  Nobody  who  knows  the  Government 
at  Washington  can  imagine  the  State  Department 
without  Mr.  Adee.  He  knows  what  Secretary  John 
Forsyth  wrote  to  our  Minister  in  London  in  the  year 
1835  about  the  Canadian  fisheries  dispute.  He  knows 
what  our  M  mister  to  Portugal  reported  to  Secretary 
Marcy  in  the  year  1854  about  the  state  of  that  one- 
time monarchy.  He  knows  the  intrigues  of  the  Court  of 
China.  He  knew  before  the  Shah  of  Persia  knew  it 
himself  that  he  was  to  be  deposed  and  exiled.  He 
knows  how  much  money  the  ex-Sultan  of  Turkey  had 
and  where  he  had  it  deposited.  He  could  seat  a  dinner 
party  in  the  Imperial  Court  at  Peking  without  making 
a  mistake,  or  lay  out  a  bicycle  tour  through  Germany 
with  equal  ease  and  precision,  and  his  advice  on  either 
problem  would  be  final  and  authoritative. 

Mr.  Adee  has  completed  thirty-five  years  of  contin- 
uous service  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  State,  and  forty- 
two  years  of  continuous  service  in  our  diplomatic  serv- 
ice. He  was  born  in  Astoria,  New  York,  on  November 
27,  1842.  His  first  service  in  the  diplomatic  corps  was 
as  secretary  of  the  American  legation  at  Madrid,  to 
which  he  was  appointed  on  September  9,  1870,  and,  in 
the  absence  of  the  charge  d'affaires,  assumed  the  duties 
of  that  office.  He  remained  at  this  post  until  1877, 


REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE  147 

when,  because  of  ill-health,  he  returned  to  the  United 
States.  Shortly  after  his  return  he  was  appointed  chief 
of  the  diplomatic  bureau,  which  place  he  held  until 
July  1 8,  1882,  when  President  Arthur  appointed  him 
Third  Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  President  Cleve- 
land promoted  Mr.  Adee  to  Second  Assistant  Secretary 
of  State  on  August  3,  1886.  In  this  capacity  he  served 
under  Presidents  McKinley,  Roosevelt,  Taft,  Wilson, 
and  Harding.  Mr.  Adee  was  appointed  by  President 
McKinley  as  Secretary  of  State  ad  interim  to  fill  a 
vacancy,  and  he  served  in  that  capacity  twelve  days. 
He  was  also  a  witness  to  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of 
Paris,  between  the  United  States  and  Spain,  and 
assumed  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State  in  one  of  the 
most  critical  periods  of  the  Chinese  Boxer  troubles. 

Many  of  the  diplomatic  notes  which  have  established 
or  readjusted  our  relations  with  other  nations  at  criti- 
cal periods  have  been  written  by  Mr.  Adee  and  then 
signed  and  dispatched  without  alteration  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  or  the  President.  Mr.  Adee  is  accredited 
with  having  invented  the  phrase  "administrative 
entity"  in  Mr.  Hay's  famous  Chinese  note.  All  of  the 
chancelleries  of  the  world  have  tried  to  fathom  and 
interpret  this  phrase,  but  without  success.  It  seems  to 
mean  whatever  the  occasion  requires  it  shall  mean. 
Mr.  Adee  was  the  only  man  who  could  write  a  dis- 
patch which  President  Cleveland  would  sign  without 
changing. 

This  indispensable  diplomatist  speaks  and  writes 


148  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

fluently  French,  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  and  all 
the  rhetoricians  might  go  to  school  to  him  in  the  use  of 
the  English  language.  As  he  employs  it,  it  is  either  a 
filmy  veil,  an  opaque  cloud,  or  as  luminous  as  light 
itself.  Among  Mr.  Adee's  minor  functions  was  the 
writing  of  the  annual  Thanksgiving  proclamation  of 
the  President,  until  the  time  of  President  Wilson,  who 
wrote  his  own ;  and  the  President's  addresses  of  wel- 
come to  foreign  ambassadors  and  ministers  when  they 
come  to  the  White  House  to  present  their  credentials. 
These  the  President  either  reads  or  speaks  from  mem- 
ory at  the  time  of  the  presentation.  During  all  of  Mr. 
Adee's  service  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  it  is  not 
of  record  that  any  Secretary  of  State,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Mr.  Gresham,  ever  took  any  important 
action  without  having  Mr.  Adee  prepare  his  case. 
Secretaries  Hay  and  Root  leaned  upon  him  heavily. 

Mr.  Adee's  knowledge  of  form  and  precedent  is 
genuinely  believed  to  be  all-embracing  and  letter- 
perfect.  He  is  a  singularly  modest  man  and  does  his 
honest  best  to  hide  his  light.  All  that  is  known  of  the 
value  of  his  services  and  his  really  marvelous  knowl- 
edge of  diplomatic  affairs  becomes  public  property 
through  the  consistent  and  freely  expressed  praises  of 
his  superiors.  So  far  as  is  known,  he  does  not  even  read 
any  of  the  things  that  are  printed  in  praise  of  his  work. 
Therefore  his  biographers  of  the  press  always  feel  at 
liberty  to  praise  him  as  openly  and  unstintedly  as  they 
believe  he  deserves. 


REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE  149 

Mr.  Adee  is  supposed  to  be  deaf.  It  seems  to  be  a 
peculiar  sort  of  deafness  that  enables  him  to  hear  what 
he  cares  to  hear  and  to  remain  oblivious  to  things  that 
annoy  or  bore  him.  One  of  his  biographers  calls  atten- 
tion to  another  infirmity  which  has  stood  him  in 
equally  good  stead  in  his  official  life.  That  is  a  temper 
worthy  of  his  Scottish  ancestry.  This  writer,  who  knew 
Mr.  Adee  for  many  years,  noted  of  this  temper :  when 
it  is  calm,  he  is  urbanity  exemplified  ;  when  it  explodes, 
let  those  who  stand  nearest  look  out  for  themselves! 
His  underlings  live  in  awe  of  this  sort  of  demonstra- 
tion after  having  witnessed  one,  and  it  makes  some  of 
them  more  careful  with  their  work ;  while  outsiders 
having  frequent  business  with  the  department  learn 
to  avoid  irritating  importunities  and  other  breaches  of 
courtesy. 

Now  and  then  it  is  the  innocent,  animate  or  inani- 
mate, who  suffer  because  the  guilty  are  out  of  reach. 
Gossip  used  to  have  it  that  on  one  occasion  Adee  came 
back  to  his  room  after  a  very  annoying  interview  in  the 
Secretary's  office,  and  began  to  scatter  his  books  and 
papers  this  way  and  that,  now  slamming  a  bulky  vol- 
ume upon  the  floor,  now  sweeping  a  pile  of  unsigned 
letters  into  the  waste-basket,  and  otherwise  reducing 
the  top  of  his  writing-table  to  a  plain  of  desolation. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  outburst,  a  messenger  en- 
tered, bearing  the  modest  luncheon  Adee  had  ordered 
before  going  out.  Its  most  conspicuous  factor  was  a 
large  piece  of  pie.  Reaching  for  that  as  he  had  reached 


150  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

for  the  laws,  treaties,  and  correspondence  which  he 
had  lately  sent  hurtling  through  space,  Adee  flung 
it  straight  at  the  messenger's  head.  The  frightened 
servitor  dodged,  and  the  pie  shot  over  him,  plastering 
itself,  in  all  its  juicy  exuberance,  against  the  portrait  of 
a  distinguished  Secretary  of  State  of  a  past  era  which 
hung  on  the  wall  behind.  What  purports  to  be  the 
mark  of  it  is  still  pointed  out,  on  the  sly,  to  visitors. 
There  was  always  an  apocryphal  odor  about  this  story, 
and  I  should  not  wish  to  vouch  for  its  truth. 

Secretary  Hay  once  said  :  "Adee  would  make  a  good 
Bible.  He  can  begin  at  the  creation  and  tell  me  how 
everything  was  done  in  the  past,  and  wind  up  by 
instructing  me  in  my  duties  as  head  of  this  depart- 
ment. And  the  beauty  of  it  is  that  I  shan't  go  far 
astray  if  I  follow  him." 

Gaillard  Hunt,  who  served  in  the  State  Department 
with  Mr.  Adee,  tells  this  story :  Some  years  ago  a 
certain  under-official  in  the  State  Department  went  to 
the  Secretary  of  State,  James  G.  Elaine,  and  asked  him 
to  appoint  him  to  a  vacancy  among  the  assistant  secre- 
taries. 

"  Why,"  said  Mr.  Elaine,  "it  would  not  be  doing  you 
a  kindness  ;  you  would  lose  the  place  when  the  admin- 
istration changed." 

"Why  so ?"  asked  the  applicant.  "Look  at  Adee." 
"Well,"  said  Mr.  Elaine,  slowly,  "Adee  is  —  Adee." 
Volumes  could  not  have  said  more.  He  stands  in  a 
class  by  himself,  without  prototype  or  understudy,  and 


REMARKABLE  MR.  ADEE  151 

when  he  shall  pass  off  the  stage  a  search  will  have  to 
be  made  for  some  one  now  unknown  to  play  his  r61e. 
What  Mr.  Elaine  himself  thought  of  him  was  shown 
in  a  remark  he  once  made  to  a  visitor  who  happened 
to  enter  his  room  as  Mr.  Adee  was  leaving  it.  "There 
goes  a  great  man,"  he  said. 

Mr.  Adee  is  the  second  man  of  his  type  who  has  had 
service  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington.  His 
precursor  was  William  Hunter,  of  Rhode  Island,  who 
secured  a  clerkship  in  the  department  in  1^29,  was 
promoted  to  be  a  chief  of  bureau  in  1833,  and  became 
chief  clerk  in  1852,  at  a  time  when  Daniel  Webster  was 
Secretary  of  State.  Because  there  were  no  assistant 
secretaries  in  those  days,  Mr.  Hunter  was  sometimes 
called  upon  to  act  as  head  of  the  department.  The 
office  of  Second  Assistant  Secretary  was  expressly 
created  for  him  in  1866.  He  held  it  for  twenty  years, 
until  his  death  in  1886,  when  Mr.  Adee  succeeded  him. 
Thus  it  comes  about  that  in  the  entire  history  of 
our  government  only  two  men  have  served  as  Second 
Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  It  would  be,  perhaps, 
impossible  to  find  a  parallel  to  that  afforded  by  these 
two  men  in  any  other  department  of  the  Government. 

Mr.  Adee  is  as  prized  and  permanent  a  possession  of 
the  Federal  Government  as  is  the  Great  Seal  of  State 
which  his  department  is  charged  with  keeping. 


MELLON:  A  CERTAIN  RICH  MAN 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  played  a  sorry  trick  on  all  Secre- 
taries of  the  Treasury.  He  had  to  make  a  speech  in 
1831  about  Alexander  Hamilton.  In  the  accepted 
phrase,  he  spoke  in  part  as  follows : 

"Hamilton  smote  the  rock  of  the  national  resources, 
and  abundant  streams  of  revenue  gushed  forth.  He 
touched  the  dead  corpse  of  the  public  credit  and  it 
sprang  upon  its  feet." 

The  fat  was  in  the  fire.  Webster  was  a  man  of 
authority  and  the  report  of  what  he  said  got  about.  It 
got  into  McGuffey's  Fifth  Reader  and  Hill's  Rhetoric 
and  the  book  from  which  we  used  to  take  our  pieces  to 
speak  on  Friday  afternoons.  In  my  book  it  was  on  the 
page  after  the  piece  that  John  Spear  used  to  speak  that 
begins : 

By  Nebo's  lonely  mountain, 
On  this  side  Jordan's  wave, 
In  a  vale  in  the  land  of  Moab  — 

But  the  picture  of  Alexander  Hamilton  smiting  the 
rock  of  the  national  resources  and  torrents  of  revenue 
gushing  forth  is  one  that  I  have  carried  in  my  mind 
since  I  was  thirteen  years  old.  It  interested  me.  I  re- 
membered it.  And  I  am  not  the  only  one.  That  is 
what  has  made  all  the  trouble. 

It  seemed  so  easy.  From  that  day  to  this  there  have 
been  associations,  individuals,  corporations,  partner^ 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

ANDREW  W.  MELLON,  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY 


MELLON  153 

ships,  societies,  clubs,  what  not,  all  animated  with  the 
single  resolve  of  inducing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
to  smite  the  rock  of  the  public  resources  while  they 
stood  by  with  pails  to  catch  the  abundant  streams  of 
revenue  that  gushed  forth.  "Look  !"  they  have  cried  ; 
"see  what  Hamilton  did.  Why  can't  you  be  a  great 
secretary  such  as  he  was  ?  Be  a  patriot  and  give  the 
rock  a  good  crack  for  us."  Some  of  these  men  are  in 
Congress,  others  are  merely  citizens  on  foot  and  tax- 
payers. They  appear  to  have  only  the  vaguest  idea  of 
where  the  money  comes  from ;  there  is  plenty  in  the 
Treasury. 

At  this  juncture  it  is  given  to  Mr.  Andrew  W.  Mel- 
lon, of  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  to  explain  to  all 
these  persons,  who  have  been  led  astray  by  Daniel 
Webster,  that  he  cannot  get  money  from  a  rock. 

Francis  Hackett  has  a  new  story  of  two  Irishmen  : 

"What's  Michael  doing  now?"  one  Irishman  asked 
another  at  a  wayside  inn. 

"Sure,  he's  gone  to  work  for  the  Irish  Agricultural 
Organization  Society." 

"Go  to  God  !  What  does  the  like  of  him  know  about 
agriculture?" 

"Well,  he's  after  picking  up  this  job  with  the  Bee- 
keepers' Association.  I  think  that's  what  he  called  it." 

"And  what  is  he  doing  with  them,  the  poor  fellow  ?" 

"Sure,  he's  going  up  and  down  Ireland  with  a 
stallion  bee." 

Ever  since  he  came  to  the  Treasury  Mr.  Mellon  has 


154  WAISHNGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

been  explaining  to  Congress,  to  the  bankers,  and  to  the 
public  that  the  Government  has  no  stallion  dollar ; 
that  it  doesn't  breed  money ;  that  it  has  no  way  of 
getting  money  except  by  taking  it  from  the  earnings  of 
those  of  us  who  have  gainful  occupations.  Mr.  Mellon 
may  have  a  stallion  dollar  or  two  working  for  him 
somewhere,  for  he  is  fabulously  rich.  He  knows  about 
money.  He  respects  it.  He  doesn't  like  to  see  it 
chucked  about.  He  hadn't  been  in  the  Treasury  a 
week  before  he  was  writing  like  this  in  a  circular  letter 
to  bankers :"...  the  situation  calls  for  the  utmost 
economy.  The  Nation  cannot  afford  extravagance. . . . 
The  people  generally  must  become  more  interested  in 
saving  the  Government's  money  than  in  spending 
it...." 

At  the  end  of  April  he  was  writing  to  the  Chairman 
of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  the  House: 
"The  Nation  cannot  continue  to  spend  at  this  shock- 
ing rate. . .  .The  burden  is  unbearable.  This  is  no  time 
for  extravagance  or  for  entering  upon  new  fields  of 
expenditure.  The  Nation  cannot  afford  wasteful  or 
reckless  expenditure. . . .  Expenditures  should  not  even 
be  permitted  to  continue  at  the  present  rate."  Mr. 
Mellon  was  very  much  in  earnest,  and  when  he  talks 
about  money  it  behooves  all  and  sundry  to  stop,  look, 
and  listen,  for  money  is  his  specialty.  He  has  spent  his 
whole  life  in  amassing  and  multiplying  and  guarding 
it.  He  is  supposed  to  be  runner-up  to  John  D.  in  the 
Open  Money-Getting  Championship,  but  of  that  I 


MELLON  155 

know  nothing.  I  am  asking  you  to  consider  him  with 
me  now  in  his  new  and  public  aspect  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  regard  his  fabulous  wealth  only  as  a 
background. 

It  may  very  well  turn  out  that  Mr.  Mellon  will  have 
the  largest  opportunity  and  the  most  onerous  and  re- 
sponsible public  service  of  any  of  the  men  Mr.  Harding 
invited  to  Washington  to  share  under  his  direction  in 
the  conduct  of  national  affairs.  For  the  next  half- 
dozen  years,  and  probably  for  a  longer  period,  the 
Government  finances  will  need  all  the  skill,  all  the 
intelligence,  and  all  the  vision  that  can  be  commanded. 
The  Treasury,  as  one  of  the  results  of  the  Great  War, 
finds  itself  in  a  novel  position.  It  has  commitments 
and  engagements  and  relations  at  home  and  abroad 
that  it  has  not  faced  before.  It  is  prudent  and  fitting 
to  inquire  and  report  about  Mr.  Mellon.  He  is  the 
newest  of  newcomers  in  public  life.  What  sort  is  he  ; 
The  data  at  this  juncture  is  incomplete,  but  enough  is 
at  hand  to  allow  for  a  provisional  estimate  and  impres- 
sion. 

At  first  sight  he  gives  no  slight  indication  of  his 
proved  qualities.  He  looks  like  a  tired  double-entry 
bookkeeper  who  is  afraid  of  losing  his  job.  He  gives  the 
instant  impression  of  being  worn  and  tired,  tired,  tired. 
He  is  slight  and  frail.  He  sits  in  a  chair  utterly  re- 
laxed. He  wears  dark,  sober  clothes,  a  black  tie,  his 
coat  always  buttoned,  and  in  these  days,  when  even 
the  office  boys  sport  silk,  his  socks  are  black,  cotton 


156  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

lisle,  and  not  pulled  up  as  sharply  as  they  might  be.  I 
don't  mean  to  give  the  impression  that  he  isn't  neat  in 
his  attire ;  on  the  contrary,  he  complies  so  closely  and 
rigidly  to  the  standards  of  a  well-dressed  man  that  it 
requires  a  distinct  effort  of  attention  and  memory  to 
remember  anything  about  his  personal  appearance. 
Sometimes  in  his  office  he  smokes  small  black  paper 
cigarettes.  When  they  go  out,  he  relights  them  and 
smokes  them  right  down  to  the  end.  Not  an  eighth  of 
an  inch  is  wasted.  He  doesn't  smoke  lightly,  casually, 
unconsciously,  but  precisely,  carefully,  consciously,  as 
a  man  computing  interest  on  $87.76  for  two  months 
and  eight  days  at  4f  per  cent  per  annum. 

Mr.  Mellon  looks  as  if  he  didn't  know  what  fun  was, 
and  I  don't  believe  he  does.  Unless  I  am  much  mis- 
taken, the  job  of  being  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
weighs  on  him ;  oppresses  him.  I  think  he  takes  all 
business  seriously,  as  seriously  as  some  of  those  men, 
who  are  as  intent  as  trained  bird  dogs  on  their  game, 
take  golf.  He  is  acutely  conscious  of  all  he  has  to  do. 
He  does  not  take  it  easily.  Apparently  he  has  handled 
other  people's  money  so  long  that  it  has  made  him 
super-conscientious.  Perhaps  it  is  only  natural  for  a 
man  who  has  so  much  money  to  regard  its  manage- 
ment and  control  with  so  much  gravity  and  concern. 

I  should  say  that  Mr.  Mellon  was  not  an  outgiving 
person.  When  he  shakes  hands  he  gives  you  only  the 
tips  of  his  fingers.  He  is  so  quiet,  so  reticent,  so  re- 
served as  to  give  the  impression  of  being  almost  in- 


MELLON  157 

articulate.  This  effect  is  heightened  by  his  diffidence 
of  manner  and  his  hesitant  manner  of  speech.  But  he 
can't  be  timid.  No  man  can  live  the  competitive  life  he 
has  lived  in  Pittsburgh,  and  what  the  railroad  people 
call  the  Ohio  River  gateways,  and  be  timid.  But  he  is 
diffident  and  has  an  odd  little  hesitation  in  his  speech  ; 
and  he  does  love  the  quiet  ways. 

Thanks  to  the  foresight  and  forethought  of  one  of 
Mr.  Mellon's  predecessors  in  the  Treasury,  who  was 
also  a  quiet  man,  his  office  has  a  private  entrance  and 
exit.  He  can  come  into  it  and  leave  it  by  a  private 
elevator  without  being  seen.  When  he  goes  to  Cabinet 
meetings,  he  has  only  to  come  down  in  his  own  elevator 
to  the  street  level  and  nip  across  the  narrow  roadway 
between  the  Treasury  and  the  White  House.  He  is  not 
in  the  open  a  minute  before  he  can  dart  in  the  east 
portico ;  then  he  has  only  to  follow  the  long  passage 
through  the  east  extension  under  the  main  house  and 
through  the  west  extension  or  wing,  past  the  latticed 
enclosures  where  the  White  House  laundry  hangs,  to 
the  back  porch  of  the  executive  offices.  Through  the 
open  doorway,  and  he  steps  almost  straight  into  the 
Cabinet  room,  which  is  hidden  by  a  screen.  In  the 
entire  journey  he  is  only  in  exposed  or  open  territory 
during  the  brief  minute  that  he  crosses  the  street.  For 
the  rest  of  it  he  is  in  his  own  or  Administration  com- 
munication trenches. 

I  remember  his  first  Cabinet  meeting.  All  the  corre- 
spondents were  waiting  in  the  anterooms  and  passages 


158  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

of  the  executive  offices  to  see  Mr.  Harding  after  the 
Cabinet  meeting.  When  the  meeting  broke  up,  Mr. 
Mellon  came  out  with  the  others  and  ran  into  the 
crowd.  He  plainly  didn't  know  what  to  make  of  it. 
He  didn't  know  what  it  was  all  about.  He  had  never 
seen  such  a  gathering  outside  of  any  directors'  meeting 
he  had  ever  attended.  He  didn't  know  any  of  the 
correspondents.  None  of  them  knew  him.  The  other 
Cabinet  men  were  greeted  and  surrounded  by  little 
knots  of  men.  Mr.  Mellon  looked  as  if  he  wanted  to 
slip  away  —  and  he  did.  He  isn't  used  to  reporters 
or  any  method  or  channel  or  form  of  publicity.  He  is 
not  a  public  man.  He  is  as  private  as  a  toothbrush. 
He  is  without  any  sort  of  public  experience. 

From  what  one  hears,  he  is  just  as  uncommunicative 
in  the  Cabinet  room  as  he  is  outside.  Mr.  Harding, 
who  is  as  friendly  as  an  Elk,  I  suspect  finds  some 
difficulty  in  establishing  a  close  contact  with  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying 
that  he  had  never  seen  Mr.  Mellon  until  he  invited 
him,  at  Mr.  Knox's  suggestion,  to  come  to  Marion.  I 
have  heard  only  one  story  about  him  in  the  Cabinet 
room. 

It  appears  that  one  day  the  Cabinet  had  under  dis- 
cussion what  should  be  done  with  one  of  the  great 
war  industries  plants.  The  immediate  problem  was 
whether  twelve  or  fifteen  millions  should  be  spent  in 
putting  it  in  condition  or  whether  it  should  be  aban- 
doned and  salvaged.  One  after  another  of  the  men 


MELLON  159 

around  the  table  gave  his  judgment  and  opinion.  Mr. 
Mellon  sat  quiet.  Presently  the  President,  at  the  head 
of  the  table,  turned  toward  him  and  said : 

"But  we  haven't  heard  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  What  does  he  think  about  this  proposal  ?  I 
should  like  to  have  his  views." 

Mr.  Mellon  was  hesitant.  Then  he  spoke  up  in  his 
low,  quiet,  dry  voice.  The  matter  was  not  exactly  in 
his  department ;  he  had  not  given  the  problem  any 
study  ;  he  was  not  familiar  with  all  the  conditions  and 
the  full  situation ;  it  was  a  question  of  some  impor- 
tance ;  he  did  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  giving  his 
final  opinion  unless  he  had  opportunity  to  go  into  the 
whole  matter  more  fully,  but  he  thought  he  could 
indicate  possibly  what  his  final  judgment  might  be,  if 
allowed  to  tell  what  he  had  done  in  a  somewhat  similar 
and  personal  case.  He  owned  a  war  plant  that  stood 
him  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  millions,  and  just  the  other 
day  the  question  had  come  up  whether  to  spend  that 
much  more  money  on  it  or  to  wipe  it  off.  "  I  told  'em  to 
scrap  it,"  concluded  Mr.  Mellon. 

"Well,  sir,"  said  the  man  who  was  telling  the  story, 
"the  discussion  in  the  Cabinet  ended  right  there.  The 
Cabinet  felt  that  if  Mr.  Mellon  could  afford  to  scrap 
his  plant  the  United  States  Government  could  afford 
to  follow  the  same  course.  When  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  does  participate  in  a  discussion  he  usually 
nails  it  down." 

Mr.  Mellon  will  take  care  of  our  money.  That  is 


I6o  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

what  he  has  done  all  his  life.  It  is  a  tiring  job  and  takes 
its  toll  of  a  man.  You  know  even  on  the  most  casual 
contact  that  he  is  cautious  and  careful  and  prudent 
and  wary  beyond  all  words. 

He  gives  away  oodles  and  heaps  of  his  own  money. 
His  benefactions  and  charities  run  into  immense  sums, 
but  you  somehow  know  that  he  never  wasted  a  dime. 
He  is  acquisitive.  He  knows  how  to  manage,  conserve, 
and  breed  money.  I  suspect  that  most  of  his  dollars 
are  stallion  dollars  and  earn  their  keep.  He  is  a  de- 
veloper and  a  builder.  He  has  an  oil  business  nearly  as 
big  as  the  Standard's.  He  is  possibly  the  chief  figure  in 
the  steel  car  business.  He  brought  the  aluminum  in- 
dustry in  this  country  to  its  present  pitch. 

I  do  not  choose  to  make  the  absurd  statement  at 
this  late  day  that  he  is  an  exceptionally  able  man. 
That  is  wholly  proven,  though  you  might  never  sus- 
pect it  at  the  first  or  even  second  or  third  meeting.  If 
he  is  anything  of  an  economist  or  statesman,  if  he  has  a 
wide  vision,  and  understanding,  in  addition  to  his 
capacity  for  acquisition,  and  his  qualities  as  a  finan- 
cier and  banker,  then  he  too  may  become  a  great 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  like  Alexander  Hamilton 
and  cause  abundant  streams  of  revenue  to  gush  forth. 
If  he  does,  the  Republican  Party  will  never  forget  him. 
Streams  of  revenue  is  its  whole  present  quest. 


McCORMICK:  THE  YOUNG  VITAMINE 

IT  is  a  great  comfort  to  me  that  nobody  seems  to  know 
precisely  what  a  vitamine  is.  I  don't  know  either,  but 
I  feared  that  somebody  interested  in  that  sort  of  thing 
might  have  isolated  one,  studied  its  habits,  and  written 
its  life  history.  In  such  a  case  it  would  be  just  my  luck 
to  have  a  vitamine  prove  wholly  unlike  what  I  think 
it  to  be.  Then  I  would  be  under  the  necessity  of  with- 
drawing it  as  I  now  apply  it  as  a  term  of  description  to 
Senator  Medill  McCormick.  And  I  wouldn't  like  to  do 
that,  because  he  and  the  vitamine  seem  to  me  play- 
mates and  the  complements  of  one  another. 

The  vitamine,  I  take  it,  is  chiefly  noted  for  a  certain 
inherent  lively  quality.  All  the  people  I  have  asked 
about  it  have  agreed  that  "it  is  something  like  elec- 
tricity." It  resides  in  yeast  cakes,  in  beans,  and  other 
potent  food  stuffs.  It  is  also  something  like  Kipling's 
Fuzzy-wuzzy  in  that  it  is  all  hot  sand  and  ginger  when 
alive,  and  generally  shamming  when  it's  dead.  It 
radiates  pep  and  energy  and  vitality.  It  is  a  sure  cure 
for  inhibitions  and  inferiority  complexes.  It  raises 
morale.  In  fine,  it  is  just  what  the  doctor  ordered,  or, 
as  they  used  to  say  in  France,  the  stuff  to  give  the 
troops. 

Now,  if,  in  truth,  this  is  an  accurate  description  of 
vitamines,  I  am  amply  justified  in  applying  the  term 
to  Mr.  McCormick.  For  all  of  the  qualities  that  have 


162  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

been  ascribed  to  vitamines  are  his  in  ample  quantity 
and  to  a  major  degree.  He  is  a  live  spark.  Mr.  Dooley 
said  that  when  Beveridge  entered  the  Senate  he 
thereby  reduced  the  average  age  of  that  body  to 
ninety-seven  years.  Mr.  McCormick's  entrance  has 
increased  the  energy  content  by  one  hundred  per  cent. 
He  goes  through  life  with  his  foot  always  on  the  accel- 
erator and  can  jump  from  three  miles  an  hour  to  sixty 
in  the  length  of  his  own  shadow. 

The  chief  interesting  thing  about  any  power  plant  or 
body  of  stored  energy  is  what  use  will  be  made  of  it. 
How  will  it  be  directed  ;  to  what  end  will  it  be  applied  ? 
Any  accumulation  of  power  is  a  matter  of  public 
interest  if  not  of  public  concern.  It  is  for  this  reason 
among  others  that  I  venture  to  bring  Medill  McCor- 
mick  forward  for  consideration  and  examination.  Now 
that  he  is  a  public  man  with  what  is  likely  to  be  a  long 
political  future  ahead  of  him,  it  concerns  us  to  know 
what  he  will  make  of  himself. 

Most  men  come  to  the  Senate  as  the  capstone  of 
their  political  career.  McCormick  as  a  Senator  is  only 
at  the  threshold  of  his.  His  real  service  lies  in  front  of 
him.  His  present  situation  is  not  a  reward  for  things 
done,  but  an  incentive  to  accomplishment.  My  pleas- 
ant and  self-imposed  task  is  not  to  submit  to  you  a 
record  of  the  past,  but  the  beginning  of  a  new  enter- 
prise. A  race  once  run  is  history,  but  a  race  beginning 
is  news.  It  is  also  a  betting  proposition.  And  it  creates, 
by  the  same  token,  an  atmosphere  of  lively  expectation, 


Copyright  by  Harris  !f  Ewing 

SENATOR  MEDILL  McCORMICK 


McCORMICK  163 

Medill  McCormick  comes  by  his  vitamines  natu- 
rally enough  by  inheritance.  He  is  Scotch- Irish  to  begin 
with,  and  that  is  a  combination  of  bloods  that  is  yet  to 
be  surpassed  among  the  sons  of  men.  In  the  proper 
admixture  it  gives  its  happy  possessor  tenacity  and  fire 
and  vivacity,  a  cool  daring  and  a  quick  willingness 
to  do  anything  at  least  once.  To  the  hardy  and  canny 
qualities  of  the  Scotch  they  add  the  Irish  gayety,  and 
quickness  of  mind  and  imagination.  When  their  car- 
buretor is  so  adjusted  as  to  give  them  the  proper 
mixture  they  are  good  for  as  many  miles  per  gallon  as 
any  make  of  man  we  have  produced. 

More  specifically,  the  Illinois  Senator  is  descended 
on  his  father's  side  from  one  of  the  three  McCormick 
brothers  who  came  to  this  country  and  eventually 
founded  the  agricultural  implement  business  that 
became  the  basis  of  the  International  Harvester  Com- 
pany. His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Joseph  Medill,  the 
great  editor.  So  that  on  both  sides  he  comes  of  men  of 
force  and  action,  pioneers  in  their  fields,  men  of  imagi- 
nation and  daring.  He  has  inherited  certain  of  their 
qualities,  and  he  has  only  just  begun  in  recent  years  to 
make  an  orderly,  constructive  use  of  them.  They  have 
brought  him  to  the  Senate  at  an  early  age  (born  1877), 
and  after  the  briefest  of  political  careers.  His  whole 
experience  as  an  active  participant  in  politics  is  com- 
prehended in  the  period  since  1912. 

He  really  began  as  a  Progressive.  He  stood  at  Arma- 
geddon and  after  that  debdcle  came  back  into  the 


164  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Republican  ranks.  He  effected  that  transformation 
with  an  ease  and  celerity  and  a  lightness  of  movement 
that  was  not  exceeded  by  any  and  equaled  by  few.  He 
demonstrated  in  the  transaction  a  real  political  skill 
and  facility.  He  did  not  come  back  to  his  former 
associates  humbly  and  hat  in  hand  ;  nor  did  he  come 
back  with  clamor,  and  truculently.  He  proved  anew 
that  movement  can  be  quicker  than  the  eye.  Simply 
one  day  he  was  a  Progressive,  and  when  he  next  became 
audible  and  visible  he  was  a  Republican  in  good  and 
regular  standing. 

Many  others  traveled  this  road  after  the  1912  elec- 
tion, but  for  the  most  part  their  return  journey  was  as 
conspicuous  as  that  of  the  men  who  came  back  from 
Moscow  with  Napoleon.  They  acquired  what  may  be 
called  certain  vocational  stigmata  and  were  easily 
identified  as  ex-Progressives.  Bainbridge  Colby  is  a 
notable  case  in  point,  because  he,  instead  of  coming 
back  to  his  starting-point,  branched  off  and  became 
a  Democrat,  thereby  winning  his  durable  and  lasting 
sobriquet  as,  The  Loyal  Chameleon.  But  his  case  was 
exceptional  and  conspicuous. 

Mr.  McCormick's  change  was  effected  in  the  Illinois 
legislature,  in  which  he  served  successive  terms,  first 
as  a  Progressive  and  then  as  a  Republican.  He  came 
straight  on  from  there  to  Washington  as  a  Congress- 
man at  large  from  his  State  and  after  a  brief  experience 
in  the  House  was  translated  to  the  Senate. 

In  his  present  environment  he  has  come  ahead  in  the 


McCORMICK  165 

Senate  Republican  organization.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  Foreign  Relations  Committee,  which  is  counted  a 
reward  even  after  long  service.  Senator  Cullom,  the  last 
Illinois  Senator  who  sat  on  it,  was  in  the  chamber 
twelve  years  before  the  distinction  came  to  him.  Mr. 
McCormick's  early  arrival  is  the  most  conspicuous 
mark  by  which  one  can  judge  his  progress  in  the  Senate. 

His  present  preoccupation  is  with  foreign  affairs. 
He  has  traveled  widely  and  over  a  period  of  years  that 
long  antedated  his  entrance  into  politics.  He  went  to 
Europe  after  the  1920  election  and  before  the  inaugura- 
tion of  Mr.  Harding,  and  met  and  talked  with  the  chief 
political  and  public  figures  in  England,  France,  Italy, 
Austria,  Poland,  Czecho-Slovakia,  and  Germany.  Mr. 
Harding  summoned  him  to  Florida  to  go  over  with 
him  the  information  he  had  acquired.  To  what  extent 
he  colored  or  influenced  the  President's  mind  I  do 
not  pretend  to  know.  But  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
do  both. 

I  cite  this  instance  here  to  indicate  his  sense  of  news 
and  news  values,  which  so  far  as  my  knowledge  runs, 
no  other  Senator  has.  He  has  an  instinct  for  being  on 
the  spot  where  things  are  happening ;  the  center  of 
interest.  That  implies  a  driving  force  within  and  a 
quick  imaginative  grasp  of  a  situation  while  it  is  form- 
ing and  before  it  has  crystallized.  It  indicates  an  eager 
and  alert  mind. 

These  qualities  Mr.  McCormick  has  proved.  What 
he  has  yet  to  prove  is  more  important  to  us  in  his 


166  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

capacity  as  a  United  States  Senator.  He  must  show 
stability,  soundness  of  judgment,  capacity  for  thinking 
a  problem  through,  a  disinterestedness  in  public  service 
for  the  work's  sake.  He  must  base  himself  firmly  and 
solidly  if  he  is  to  achieve  anything  enduring.  He  is  in 
his  first  term  in  the  Senate.  He  has  come  on  with  a 
marvelous  rapidity.  He  has  speed,  and  a  capacity  for 
quick  action,  and  energy.  His  quick  rise  has  proved 
that  he  can  make  a  successful  appeal  to  voters.  He  has 
steadied  and  controlled  and  used  to  some  purpose  since 
1912  his  great  store  of  energy  —  his  vitamines,  as  I 
have  chosen  to  call  them.  But  not  yet  has  he  mellowed 
or  ripened.  When  he  does  that  we  shall  know  more 
about  him.  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,  but  I 
take  it  that  means  fruits  in  their  maturity. 

In  his  present  stage  of  development  Mr.  McCormick 
lacks  suavity ;  he  is  not  finally  tempered  or  seasoned. 
His  methods  are  direct  and  swift.  He  is  liked  or  dis- 
liked with  vehemence.  He  does  not  tread  a  cautious 
or  politic  course  in  his  daily  relationships.  He  does 
not  fear  to  offend.  He  was  one  of  the  "  irreconcilables  " 
on  the  League  of  Nations.  He  sometimes  irritates  and 
vexes  slower  and  more  cautious  minds  by  his  flashes 
and  his  ardent,  lively  temperament.  He  is  not  notably 
reverential  and  respectful  to  his  elders  and  equals.  I 
have  known  them  to  resent  that. 

Yet  unless  I  mistake  him  he  is  of  the  type  that  will 
not  be  denied.  He  is  one  of  the  new  Senators  who  has 
made  his  name  known  outside  of  the  Senate.  He  has 


McCORMICK  167 

given  Illinois  a  significance  and  an  importance  in  the 
councils  of  the  Senate  that  she  has  not  enjoyed  since 
Senator  Cullom  died  after  long  and  continuous  service. 
Continued  service  is  one  of  the  requisites  of  effective- 
ness in  the  Senate.  Whether  Mr.  McCormick  will 
have  that  is  dependent  upon  the  people  of  Illinois  who 
vote.  For  they  after  all  are  the  final  judges  of  the 
qualities  and  capacities  he  discloses  in  their  service. 

I  can  only  number  myself  among  the  detached  on- 
lookers who  would  like  to  see  him  given  a  further 
opportunity  to  develop  his  possibilities.  The  experi- 
ment to  this  juncture  has  been  interesting  and  justi- 
fied. I  want  to  know  all  there  is  to  know  about  vita- 
mines. 


HUGHES:  A  MAN  OF  SUBSTANCE 

CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES  is  an  ill  man  to  write  about. 
He  is  as  destitute  of  graces,  of  lights  and  shades,  of 
frailties  and  foibles,  of  idiosyncrasies  and  little  personal 
eccentricities,  of  the  "human  interest"  touch,  as  any 
man  in  public  life.  It  will  be  easy  enough  to  write  his 
obituary,  for  his  career  and  his  achievements  will  lend 
themselves  to  eulogy.  He  has  a  long  and  fine  record  of 
things  done  in  the  public  interest  to  be  recited.  He  has 
in  plentiful  measure  the  outstanding  virtues  of  sobri- 
ety, steadfastness,  trustworthiness,  honesty,  industry, 
intelligence,  capacity,  application,  and  the  will  to  suc- 
ceed. He  has  been  as  successful  in  private  life  as  in 
politics.  He  has  in  him  the  qualities  that  make  for 
success  in  whatever  he  undertakes  —  character,  an 
educated,  trained  mind,  shrewdness,  and  common 
sense. 

But  what  good  is  all  that  to  me?  I  don't  want  to 
write  his  epitaph,  but  to  try  to  picture  the  man  as  he  is 
in  his  daily  walk  as  Secretary  of  State,  as  taxpayer,  as 
a  citizen  living  at  1529  Eighteenth  Street  N.W.,  sub- 
ject to  colds  in  the  head,  fits  of  temper,  and  other  com- 
mon frailties  and  weaknesses  of  mankind.  It's  not 
easy  to  take  hold  of  him.  He  doesn't  offer  any  invit- 
ing approach. 

I  had  an  appointment  with  him  the  other  day,  and 
when  I  arrived  at  his  office  he  had  just  gone  out  to 


HUGHES  169 

lunch.  The  Secretary  was  sorry,  but  he  had  been  de- 
layed in  getting  away  for  his  luncheon  and  would  I 
please  wait  until  he  returned. 

"And  how  long  will  that  be  ?" 

"Nineteen  minutes." 

"Why  not  make  it  twenty  and  give  him  time  to 
digest  it?"  I  asked  facetiously,  hoping  possibly  to 
brighten  momentarily  the  serious  and  precise  young 
functionary. 

"  Because  the  Secretary  takes  only  nineteen  minutes 
for  lunch,"  replied  the  grave-faced  youth. 

Now,  what  can  you  do  with  a  man  like  that  ?  I  ask 
you. 

For  so  substantial  and  unromantic  a  figure  Mr. 
Hughes  has  been  very  changeable.  He  has  had,  at 
least,  three  distinct  phases  since  he  came  into  public 
view.  First,  as  champion  of  the  public  welfare,  gas 
and  insurance  investigator,  Governor  of  New  York, 
and  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Second, 
as  candidate  for  the  presidency.  And  now  the  third 
and  present  phase  as  Secretary  of  State.  While  retain- 
ing the  same  basic  substance  and  qualities,  he  had  his 
three  periods  or  manners :  the  early,  the  middle,  and 
the  late. 

I  take  it  from  Plutarch,  by  way  of  the  admirable  and 
never  sufficiently  to  be  commended  Bartlett,  that 
Antiphanes  said  merrily,  that  in  a  certain  city  the  cold 
was  so  intense  that  words  were  congealed  as  soon  as 
spoken,  but  that  after  some  time  they  thawed  and 


iyo  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

became  audible ;  so  that  the  words  spoken  in  winter 
were  articulated  next  summer. 

There  must  be  something  in  the  story,  for  look  at 
Mr.  Hughes.  Consider  what  he  used  to  be  and  see 
how  he  has  thawed,  so  that  now  he  not  only  gives  out 
light  but  warmth.  I  venture  to  exhibit  him  as  an  ex- 
ception to  the  rule  that  the  metaphorical  leopard  can- 
not change  his  figurative  or  rhetorical  spots.  It  is  an 
extraordinary  case.  When  Mr.  Hughes  first  emerged 
and  became  a  figure  of  public  observation  and  com- 
ment 

The  breaking  waves  dashed  high 

On  a  stern  and  rockbound  coast. 

Mr.  Hughes  seemed  caught  in  the  ice-cap.  He  was  a 
stiff,  unyielding  figure,  and  on  the  rare  occasions  when 
he  tried  to  unbend  he  almost  audibly  creaked.  A  frosty 
man,  a  just  man,  and  clearly  and  discernibly  an  able 
man,  he  was  called  the  "Charles  the  Baptist,"  or  "an 
animated  feather  duster,"  or  "a  Viking  in  a  frock 
coat."  With  it  all  he  inspired  public  confidence  and 
public  trust.  In  those  early  days  he  was  the  Black 
Knight  in  brazen  armor  who  went  about  slaying  mon- 
sters and  dragons.  Except  that  he  didn't  wear  brazen 
armor,  but  a  long  black  Prince  Albert  coat,  and 
trousers  that  were  too  long.  (Why  will  they  wear 
their  trousers  in  folds  about  their  ankles  when  they 
are  earnest  and  seeking  and  uplifting?  It  connotes  a 
state  of  mind  and  a  stage  of  political  development. 
It's  almost  a  sure  sign.  The  stronger  they  are  on  the 


HUGHES  171 

moral  issue,  the  longer  the  trousers.  It  is  an  irrele- 
vant social  and  sartorial  phenomenon  I  have  observed 
for  years,  and  it  has  rarely  failed.) 

And  this  attire  is  just  as  uncomfortable  and  almost 
as  impenetrable  as  brass  armor.  In  those  early  days 
Mr.  Hughes  wore  also  a  great,  black,  spade  beard 
parted  along  the  90th  meridian  and  combed  due  east 
and  due  west.  His  hat  was  silk  and  tall  and  black  and 
shiny.  He  didn't  take  it  off  when  he  addressed  the 
populace.  He  had  a  trick  of  standing  back  flat  on  his 
heels.  This  made  his  shoes  turn  up  at  the  toes  so  that 
from  the  ball  of  the  foot  forward  the  soles  did  not 
touch  the  ground.  He  made  an  impressive  figure.  In 
this  posture  and  in  this  attire  I  used  to  see  him  at  the 
up-state  county  fairs  in  New  York  rousing  the  yeo- 
manry. He  could  do  it,  too.  That  was  the  unexpected 
and  the  surprising  thing. 

He  was  and  is  a  powerful  exhorter.  He  has  clarity 
of  mind  and  clarity  and  lucidity  of  expression.  He 
brought  a  high  character  and  a  strong,  cleanly  work- 
ing mind  to  bear  on  fundamental  questions.  The  State 
politicians  of  that  time  were  no  match  for  him.  They 
soon  knew  it.  They  guyed  his  whiskers  and  built  up 
the  legend  that  he  lived  on  an  ice-peak,  but  it  got  them 
nowhere. 

Mr.  Hughes  made  a  fight  for  a  direct  primary,  and 
got  it.  He  urged  a  Public  Service  Commission,  and 
one  was  established.  He  opposed  a  two-cent-a-mile 
rate  on  the  railroads,  and  it  was  not  imposed.  He 


172  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

opposed  race-track  betting,  and  it  was  stopped,  and 
6213  sheet- writers  (or  thereabouts)  lost  their  jobs  that 
kept  them  out  in  the  open  air  and  had  to  go  to  work  in 
the  frowsty  pool-rooms.  The  betting  at  the  tracks  was 
stopped,  but  not  for  long.  The  whole  episode  proved 
to  be  a  striking  example  of  how  "reforms,"  brought 
about  under  high  public  feeling  and  under  the  driving 
force  of  a  strong  leadership,  are  by  mutual  easement 
and  accommodation  later  ameliorated  and  modified 
to  suit  the  public  demand. 

The  situation  and  the  procedure  was  this  when  Mr. 
Hughes  became  convinced  that  race-track  betting 
was  a  bad  thing  for  the  citizens  of  New  York.  The 
betting  ring  was  an  open  place  openly  arrived  at. 
The  bookmakers  had  their  stands  and  displayed  a 
blackboard  or  large  chart  on  which  the  odds  were 
posted.  The  bettors  handed  up  their  money  and 
received  a  ticket  on  which  was  scrawled  the  name  of 
the  horse  they  backed,  the  odds  and  the  amount  bet. 
The  transaction  was  recorded  by  the  sheet-writer. 

Mr.  Hughes  succeeded  in  stopping  that.  It  was 
made  illegal.  In  so  doing  the  livelihood  of  some,  and 
the  diversion  and  excitement  of  many  others,  was 
abruptly  terminated,  so,  after  Mr.  Hughes  was 
translated  from  the  governorship  to  the  Supreme 
Bench,  acute  and  subtle  minds  were  brought  to  bear 
to  see  if  something  could  be  done  about  it.  It  all 
worked  out  in  the  end  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
blight,  the  curse,  the  evil  of  race-track  betting  lay  in 


HUGHES  173 

recording  the  transaction.  So  now  the  whole  business 
is  carried  on  with  a  sort  of  nominal  furtiveness.  The 
bookmakers  became  "oralists."  They  do  not  openly 
record  the  wagers  they  make.  They  give  the  bettor 
no  written  evidence  of  the  sum  he  has  laid.  The 
circumstance  that  it  is  an  oral  transaction  seems  to 
make  all  the  difference. 

It  may  be  that  in  time  the  national  prohibition  act 
will  work  out  in  some  such  like  fashion.  Perhaps  if 
we  stopped  calling  it  "hooch,"  and  spoke  consistently 
instead  of  "medicinal  bitters,"  the  opening  to  a  way 
might  be  found. 

However,  that  is  all  aside  from  the  point.  My 
present  disposition  is  confined  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  displaying  a  concrete  example  of  Mr. 
Hughes' s  power  of  personality  and  his  ability  while 
governor  to  sway  the  opinions  and  actions  of  masses 
of  people  who  were  not  concerned  one  way  or  the 
other  until  he  made  them  concerned.  That  the  effect 
was  not  lasting  does  not  invalidate  the  performance. 
The  same  thing  has  happened  before  and  since.  The 
great  achievement  of  Mr.  Wilson's  administration  as 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  was  the  enactment  of  the 
Seven  Sisters  Bills,  as  they  were  called.  In  their  day 
they  were  as  famous  as  the  Seven  Sutherland  Sisters 
and  as  well  advertised.  And  now  they  are  dead  and 
nobody  knows  where  they  are  buried.  The  wild  clem- 
atis and  the  tangled  eglantine  grow  over  their  graves. 
They  died  of  neglect  and  malnutrition  when  their 


174  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

papa  went  away  to  Washington  on  other  business  and 
left  them  behind  with  strangers  who  did  not  care. 

In  those  days  of  his  first  emergence  and  participa- 
tion in  politics  Mr.  Hughes  made  himself  a  national 
figure.  His  career  and  his  performances  in  his  first 
term  as  governor  touched  the  imagination  of  the 
interior.  The  people  wanted  to  see  him  and  hear 
him.  When  Mr.  Taft  ran  for  President  in  1908, 
Governor  Hughes  was  his  most  effective  campaign 
speaker.  He  roused  more  enthusiasm  than  the  candi- 
date himself.  I  traveled  with  both  of  them  that  year. 

Mr.  Hughes  made  a  tremendous  impression.  He 
proved  himself  a  true  spell-binder.  He  made  rear 
platform  speeches  that  were  models.  He  sized  up  a 
crowd  instantly.  He  never  failed  to  know  whether 
the  assemblage  in  train  sheds,  by  little  way  stations, 
at  junction  points,  in  railroad  yards  —  wherever  his 
train  stopped  —  were  farmers,  railway  workers,  fac- 
tory hands,  or  just  an  agglomerate  of  citizens  on  foot. 
He  knew  what  to  say  to  each  special  audience.  He 
lost  no  time  getting  under  way.  He  caught  and  held 
their  attention  with  his  first  sentence.  Bryan  could 
not  have  done  it  better.  There  is  no  higher  standard. 
Mr.  Hughes  talked  to  them  as  a  statesman,  but  his 
divination,  his  adaptability,  his  sure  instinct  for  the 
right  approach  were  those  of  an  experienced  politician. 

And  then,  while  at  the  very  top  of  his  stride,  while 
he  was  being  widely  talked  about  as  a  presidential 
possibility,  when  his  political  career  seemed  assured, 


HUGHES  175 

Mr.  Hughes  accepted  Mr.  Taft  s  tender  of  a  place  on 
the  Supreme  Bench  and  bade  farewell  to  politics. 
So  bright  seemed  his  political  prospects  that  the  step 
was  spoken  of  as  a  retirement.  I  know  that  men 
interested  in  public  affairs  in  New  York  wrote  to  Mr. 
Hughes  and  chided  him  for  what  they  looked  upon  as 
his  desertion.  I  think  it  rather  irritated  Mr.  Hughes 
that  his  translation  to  the  bench  should  have  been 
taken  as  something  analogous  to  taking  the  vows  and 
becoming  a  cloistered  monk.  At  any  rate,  there  he 
was  and  apparently  settled  for  life.  It  was  made 
pretty  plain  that  Mr.  Hughes  had  definitely  aban- 
doned politics  and  would  give  the  remainder  of  his 
working  days  to  interpreting  the  law  and  the  consti- 
tution. 

Now  I  come  to  the  most  curious  and  inexplicable 
phase  of  the  Hughes  public  career.  I  wish  I  knew 
more  about  it.  Something  happened  to  him  while  he 
was  on  the  bench.  He  suffered  a  sea-change.  If  I 
knew  what  went  on  deep  down  in  his  mind  in  those 
days,  I  should  feel  that  I  had  penetrated  to  what  the 
biographers  like  to  call  the  "real"  Hughes.  But  I 
can  only  tell  what  I  know.  Mr.  Hughes  went  on  the 
Supreme  Court  in  October,  1910.  Before  the  national 
conventions  of  1912  came  round,  the  Republican 
Party  was  hopelessly  split  by  the  Progressive  seces- 
sion. This  became  a  fact  at  Chicago  in  June. 

A  great  many  people  turned  to  Mr.  Hughes  as  a 
possible  candidate  who  could  harmonize  and  compose 


176  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

the  party  differences.  He  was  approached  in  the 
early  spring  of  1912  by  men  who  inquired  whether  he 
would  be  a  candidate.  He  made  it  plain  that  he 
would  not.  He  authorized  Rabbi  Stephen  Wise  and 
others  to  make  it  clear  that  under  no  circumstances 
could  his  name  be  used.  It  was  said  for  him  that 
should  the  convention  nominate  him  against  his  will 
he  would  decline  the  nomination,  and  the  convention 
would  have  its  work  to  do  all  over  again. 

His  attitude  was  not  based  on  any  temporary  ground 
of  expediency  or  the  momentary  exigencies  of  poli- 
tics, or  any  personal  feelings  for  Mr.  Taft  who 
had  appointed  him  to  the  bench.  It  was  based  on 
fundamentals,  the  impropriety,  the  bad  example  of  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  returning  to  active 
politics.  I  think  every  one  who  talked  with  Mr. 
Hughes  at  that  time  came  away  with  the  vividly  im- 
pressed belief  that  here  was  a  strong,  sound  man  with 
matured,  reasoned  convictions  who  could  not  be 
shaken  or  tempted,  a  man  who  was  capable  of  forming 
clear  judgments  and  who  had  come  to  the  final  con- 
clusion that  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  could 
not  become  a  candidate  or  accept  political  office ; 
that  by  the  mere  fact  of  going  on  the  bench  he  had 
given  an  unspoken  pledge  to  stay  there ;  that  such 
was  the  only  possible  course ;  that  it  was  due  the 
great  profession  of  the  law,  due  the  bench,  due  all 
the  people  who  accepted  the  Supreme  Court  as 
final  arbiter  and  as  one  national  institution  abso- 


HUGHES  177 

lutely  isolated  from  the  passions  and  the  taint  of 
politics.  That  was  the  impression.  Then  what 
happened  ? 

In  1916  Mr.  Hughes  was  the  candidate  of  his  party 
for  the  presidency.  His  foot  had  slipped.  Explain 
it  who  can.  What  led  him  to  change  his  mind? 
What  were  his  mental  processes  ?  Who  tempted  him 
and  with  what  arguments?  What  reasons  did  he 
adduce  to  himself?  Why  did  he  do  it?  I  don't 
know.  I  wish  I  did.  It  was  the  oddest  thing  Mr. 
Hughes  ever  did.  It  was  unlike  him.  It  was  a  bad 
skid  and  I  thirtk  he  has  paid  for  it. 

I  was  not  in  the  country  during  the  1916  campaign, 
but  the  general  expert  testimony  seems  to  be  that  Mr. 
Hughes  was  not  himself  as  a  candidate.  Something 
seemed  to  have  happened  to  him.  He  appeared  to 
have  been  suffering  under  a  variety  of  inhibitions 
and  complexes.  He  was  far  from  hitting  on  all  six 
in  the  old  free  way.  After  the  election  I  was  in 
several  of  the  Western  States  and  on  the  Coast.  I 
was  told  everywhere :  "  If  Mr.  Hughes  had  not  come 
out  here,  we  could  have  carried  the  State  for  him. 
He  would  have  been  elected."  This  was  particularly 
true  in  California,  and  I  am  persuaded  from  my  own 
inquiries  on  the  spot  that  it  was  a  just  and  accurate 
conclusion. 

And  now,  after  the  interlude  since  1916  in  the 
practice  of  the  law,  Mr.  Hughes  is  Secretary  of  State, 
high  in  the  confidence  and  the  favor  of  Mr.  Harding, 


178  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

sharing  with  Mr.  Hoover  the  reputation  of  being  one 
of  the  two  "strong  men"  of  the  administration,  and 
happier  and  sunnier  and  warmer  and  more  responsive 
than  any  one  has  ever  seen  him. 

It  is  an  entirely  new  Hughes.  The  big,  black, 
formidable  spade  beard  is  gone,  and  there  is  now  a 
soft,  white,  rounded  one,  a  mere  buttonhole  bouquet 
of  a  beard  in  place  of  the  old  impenetrable  privet 
hedge.  Gone,  too,  is  the  old  long-tailed  coat  and  the 
high  shiny  black  hat.  He  is  a  great  surprise  to  those 
persons  who  believed  that  he  was  ice-bound  eight 
months  in  the  year.  As  a  matter  of  record  Mr. 
Hughes  is  more  friendly  and  flexible  and  easy  in  his 
demeanor  than  he  has  ever  shown  himself  before. 

He  will  tell  the  world  that  he  likes  his  job.  He 
fairly  revels  in  it,  and  is  as  enthusiastic  as  the  little 
boys  before  Christmas  who  believe  in  Santa  Claus. 
His  enthusiasm  is  contagious.  It  has  affected  the 
newspaper  correspondents  who  regularly  attend  his 
daily  "conferences,"  as  they  are  called.  They  did  a 
thing  the  other  day  that  has  never  happened  before 
in  this  town.  The  usual  exchange  of  questions  and 
answers  having  come  to  an  end,  Mr.  Hughes  left  the 
room  and  returned  to  his  office.  Within  a  minute 
or  two  he  came  bursting  back  all  aglow  and  with  a 
paper  in  his  hand.  It  was  a  dispatch  he  had  found  on 
his  desk.  It  was  news  ;  good  news,  and  Mr.  Hughes, 
all  bubbling,  read  it  out  loud  to  the  assembly. 

They  cheered  him.    They  actually   warmly  and 


HUGHES  179 

spontaneously  applauded  the  pertormance.  It  was 
obviously  so  unpremeditated,  so  genuine,  and  so 
took  them  all  in  as  interested  participants,  so  made 
them  a  part  of  the  enterprise,  that  they  gave  him  a 
hand  for  his  quick  recognition  of  their  interest  and 
their  point  of  view. 

Whether  Mr.  Hughes  will  be  a  great  Secretary  of 
State  I  won't  venture  to  guess.  He  has  made  a  good 
start.  He  is  at  his  ease  and  functioning  without 
friction.  He  seems  to  be  freed  of  his  late  inhibitions, 
and  certainly  he  appears  extraordinarily  happy  and 
content.  It  has  been  so  long  since  there  has  been 
a  real  Secretary  of  State  in  Washington  that  Mr. 
Hughes  looms  up  like  another  Pike's  Peak,  but  it  is 
much  too  early  to  form  a  judgment.  About  even  so 
steadfast  a  man  as  Mr.  Hughes,  you  never  can  tell. 
He  is  doing  all  that  lies  in  his  power  to  retrieve  the 
prestige  that  he  lost  in  his  essay  toward  the  presi- 
dency, and  he  is  acquiring  a  great  stock  of  public 
good-will.  And  he  has  got  what  J.  Pierpont  Morgan 
said  was  the  best  security  for  the  loan  of  a  million 
dollars  —  character. 


LODGE:  THE  VERY  BEST  BUTTER 

To  be  a  Cabot  among  us  is  to  have  come  over  with  the 
Conqueror.  It  is  only  fair.  There  is  even  a  sort  of 
poetic  justice  in  it.  The  first  of  the  line  was  John  or 
Zuan  Cabot,  an  Italian.  He  didn't  have  much  luck. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  early  tide  of  immigrants  to 
reach  the  mainland  of  North  America.  He  didn't 
know  it.  He  thought  it  was  an  island,  or,  at  any  rate, 
the  King  who  sent  him  did.  He  struck  straight  across 
the  western  ocean  from  Bristol  with  every  chance  in 
the  world  of  landing  at  Boston,  which  would  have  been 
wonderful  good  fortune  for  everybody  concerned. 
Instead,  by  a  perverse  fate,  he  touched  on  the  coast  of 
Labrador. 

"This  Venetian  of  ours  who  went  in  search  of  new 
islands  is  returned,"  wrote  an  Italian  in  London  to  his 
brother  at  home  ;  "his  name  is  Zuan  Cabot,  and  they 
all  call  him  the  Great  Admiral.  Vast  honor  is  paid  him, 
and  he  dresses  in  silk.  These  English  run  after  him 
like  mad  people."  The  account  book  of  Henry  VII 
contains  the  precise  entry:  "To  hym  that  found  the 
new  isle  io£."  Say,  $35.50  at  this  day's  rate  of  ex- 
change, but,  of  course,  as  we  are  so  often  told,  money 
went  further  in  those  days. 

But  interest  in  Cabot  and  his  voyage  soon  died  out. 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

SENATOR  HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 


LODGE  181 

It  only  goes  to  show  that,  even  in  those  early,  simple 
days,  the  public  was  fickle.  It  doesn't  always  recog- 
nize true  merit,  or,  recognizing  it  for  a  moment, 
doesn't  cling  to  it  and  perpetually  sing  its  praises. 
And  so  it  came  about  that  this  mainland  of  ours  which 
Zuan  Cabot  was  the  first  to  touch  was  named  "by  an 
obscure  German  professor  in  a  French  college,  after 
an  Italian  navigator  in  the  service  of  the  King  of 
Portugal."  Cabot's  name  is  not  connected  with  or 
given  to  any  town,  river,  state,  or  mountain  in  the 
New  World. 

For  us  and  our  children  there  is  only  that  perishable 
monument,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  to  preserve  and  keep 
alive  the  name.  He  is  the  only  Cabot  we  know.  There 
may  be  others,  but  we  plain  people  of  the  hills  and 
valleys  do  not  know  them.  Our  Cabot  is  Henry 
Cabot.  So  far  as  we  are  concerned,  he  is  the  nationally 
advertised  national  product  and  all  others  are  imita- 
tions. We  ask  for  "the  scholar  in  politics"  and  take 
no  substitutes.  The  genuine  cannot  be  mistaken.  It 
cools  the  blood  and  is  a  sovereign  antidote  in  cases  of 
Democracy,  curing  even  the  most  virulent  cases  of 
Wilsonism,  in  one  to  five  days.  Take  a  little  acid  for 
thy  humor's  sake. 

1  don't  know  whether  or  not  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  is 
a  kinsman  and  descendant  of  Zuan  Cabot.  It  doesn't 
really  matter.  They  are  spiritually  akin,  at  any  rate, 
have  had  somewhat  the  same  experience,  and  Mr. 
Lodge  has  kept  the  Cabot  name  a  bright  beacon  light 


1 82  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

in  a  hurried  world  given  to  forgetfulness  of  the  brave 
names  of  old.  I  do  not  want  Cabot  Lodge  forgotten  as 
Zuan  Cabot  has  been. 

I  wonder  if  by  any  chance  Henry  Adams  has  set 
down  about  Mr.  Lodge  the  permanent  record  for 
posterity.  There  has  been  no  man  of  our  time  more 
competent  to  appraise  or  more  deft  and  adept  in  re- 
ducing to  words  the  terse  truth  about  Mr.  Lodge.  In 
his  autobiography  Mr.  Adams  has  limned  a  little 
portrait  of  the  Massachusetts  Senator  which,  I  sus- 
pect, will  stand  the  test  of  many  years  without  fading 
or  losing  its  values : 

"  Roosevelts  are  born  and  never  can  be  taught ;  but 
Lodge  was  a  creature  of  teaching  —  Boston  incarnate 
—  the  child  of  his  local  parentage  ;  and  while  his  ambi- 
tion led  him  to  be  more,  the  intent,  though  virtuous, 
was — ...restless.  An  excellent  talker,  a  voracious 
reader,  a  ready  wit,  an  accomplished  orator,  with  a 
clear  mind  and  a  powerful  memory,  he  could  never 
feel  perfectly  at  ease  whatever  leg  he  stood  on,  but 
shifted,  sometimes  with  painful  strain  of  temper,  from 
one  sensitive  muscle  to  another,  uncertain  whether  to 
pose  as  an  uncompromising  Yankee  ;  or  a  pure  Ameri- 
can ;  or  a  patriot  in  the  still  purer  atmosphere  of  Irish, 
Germans,  or  Jews ;  or  a  scholar  and  historian  of  Har- 
vard College — ...standing  first  on  the  social,  then 
on  the  political  foot ;  now  worshipping,  now  banning ; 
shocked  by  the  wanton  display  of  immorality,  but 
practicing  the  license  of  political  usage ;  sometimes 


LODGE  183 

bitter,  often  genial,  always  intelligent  —  Lodge  has 
the  singular  merit  of  interesting. . . .  He  betrayed  the 
consciousness  that  he  and  his  people  had  a  past,  if 
they  dared  but  avow  it,  and  might  have  a  future,  if 
they  could  but  divine  it." 

If  I  had  any  discretion,  I  would  close  this  paper  right 
here  and  not  attempt  to  enlarge  upon  or  amplify  that 
rich  bit  of  spirited  condensation,  but  there  have  been 
brave  men  since  Agamemnon  as  well  as  before.  I  can, 
perhaps,  point  out  some  of  the  deft  strokes  of  the 
Adams  portrait  and  indicate  and  emphasize  some  of 
the  larger  values.  For  Mr.  Lodge  is  a  very  special  sort 
of  person.  He  really  is  a  figure  apart  in  the  Senate, 
and,  whether  the  other  Senators  acknowledge  the  fact 
or  not,  they  do  allow  him  a  place  of  his  own.  He  is  one 
of  the  personalities. 

Strangers  in  the  galleries  always  ask  to  have  him 
pointed  out.  There  is  an  atmosphere  about  him  of 
tradition,  of  legend,  myth  —  what  you  will.  He  re- 
tains the  singular  merit  of  interesting.  But  when  the 
eager  questioners  in  the  gallery  ask  each  in  his  own 
way  upon  what  meat  doth  this  our  Caesar  feed,  no- 
body seems  to  have  a  precise  or  definite  answer.  Yet 
Mr.  Lodge  always  plays  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
Senate  transactions,  or  in  such  of  them  as  interest 
him.  His  seat  is  always  near  the  top  of  the  table.  He 
is  the  nominal  and  titular  "leader"  of  the  Senate,  yet 
he  has  no  followers.  He  is  not  a  natural  leader,  but 
one  by  virtue  of  his  position  in  the  Senate  scheme  of 


1 84  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

organization.  To  be  quite  blunt  about  it,  he  is  too 
finicky. 

I  do  not  think  that  even  his  ardent  admirers  con- 
cede him  a  serene  and  lofty  mind  or  a  wide  vision. 
Nor  is  he  a  man  of  quick  and  wide  sympathies,  of  a  big, 
open,  generous  heart.  While  his  intelligence  is  every- 
where conceded,  other  qualities  and  attributes  are 
lacking  that,  had  he  possessed  them,  would  have 
enabled  him  to  become  such  a  figure  in  the  nation  as 
some  of  his  great  predecessors. 

It  is  quite  true  that  Mr.  Lodge  has  never  made  the 
most  of  himself;  has  never  taken  advantage  of  his 
abundant  opportunities.  He  might  have  been  a  states- 
man of  the  first  flight  if  the  real  right  stuff  had  been 
in  him,  instead  of  a  partisan,  practical  politician. 
Massachusetts  is  habituated  to  statesmen.  She  has 
produced  them.  She  knows  what  they  look  like.  She 
knows  their  habits.  She  is  willing  to  allow  them  their 
freedom,  their  independence;  not  to  tax  them  with 
petty,  political  chores ;  to  grant  them  ample  space  and 
charter  for  disinterested,  constructive  public  service 
on  the  highest  plane  they  could  achieve. 

It  is  rather  a  pity  that  Mr.  Lodge  never  made  any- 
thing of,  never  exploited  or  employed,  the  franchise 
for  development  that  his  State  gave  him  so  many 
years  ago.  As  Mr.  Adams  says,  he  never  knew  which 
pose  to  take,  which  foot  to  stand  on.  He  has  shifted 
from  one  to  the  other,  and  so  it  follows  that  he  has 
never  left  the  ground.  He  has  stayed  with  the  politi- 


LODGE  185 

cians,  or,  to  quote  again  Mr.  Adams's  admirable  and 
telling  phrase,  "shocked  by  the  wanton  display  of  im- 
morality, but  practicing  the  license  of  political  usage." 
That  is  comprehensive  enough  to  be  an  epitaph. 

Mr.  Lodge  has  been  both  fortunate  and  unfortunate 
in  his  career.  Fortunate  in  that  early  in  life  the 
legend  was  built  about  him  of  "  the  scholar  in  politics." 
It  was  so  persistently  repeated  that  it  has  become  a 
sort  of  trade- mark.  In  the  beginning  it  was  apparently 
a  way  of  saying  that  Mr.  Lodge  was  a  superior  person  ; 
that  he  was  unlike  other  politicians.  And  undoubtedly 
he  was.  He  had  great  early  advantages.  He  was  born 
among  the  socially  elect  of  his  community.  Even 
before  he  had  a  present,  he  had  a  background. 

From  his  early  youth  he  consorted  with  what  the 
March  Hare  has  enduringly  called  the  very  best  but- 
ter. He  was  amply  educated,  not  only  in  school  and 
college,  but  by  his  environment  and  associations. 
His  bread-and-cheese  problem  had  been  settled  for 
him  before  he  was  born.  Public  life  was  open  to  him 
on  the  easiest,  pleasantest  terms.  If  he  desired  and  had 
it  in  him  to  be  a  statesman,  to  make  and  leave  his 
mark  on  the  public  life  and  public  affairs  of  his  genera- 
tion, he  had  only  to  commence. 

There  was  an  immense  pride  in  and  store  of  good- 
will for  him  in  his  own  State.  The  voters  there  have 
never  checked  or  interrupted  his  career.  He  has  been 
continuously  in  the  State  and  National  Legislature 
since  his  youth.  Given  the  tools,  he  has  never  been 


1 86  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

denied  a  proper  workshop  for  their  use.  And  always 
there  has  been  thrown  about  him  this  friendly  legend 
of  "the  scholar  in  politics." 

Only  the  other  day  I  asked  a  man  in  Boston  to 
tell  me  something  about  Mr.  Lodge  and  his  career.  I 
sought  another  and  more  intimate  viewpoint  than  my 
own.  This  is  what  he  instantly  told  me:  "Lodge's 
history  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  his  country."  There 
it  is  again,  the  tired  editorial  touch,  the  worn,  rounded 
formula,  the  easy  judgment,  the  ready-to-wear  phrase. 
I  suppose  Mr.  Lodge's  history  is  a  part  of  the  history 
of  his  country,  but  so  was  Dr.  Mary  Walker's,  and 
John  L.  Sullivan's,  and  the  Dalton  boys',  and  Mrs. 
Jeannette  Bloomer's,  and  the  man's  that  struck  Billy 
Patterson,  and  heaps  and  heaps  of  others,  but  that 
sort  of  thing  gets  you  nowhere. 

I  think  we  have  the  right  to  apply  higher  and  more 
critical  standards  to  Mr.  Lodge.  His  has  been  no 
Horatio  M.  Alger,  Jr.,  career.  He  has  had  no  vicissi- 
tudes to  encounter,  no  obstacles  to  overcome.  He  was 
launched  full-panoplied  on  a  sea  of  good  fortune,  under 
the  happiest  prophecies,  and  those  prophecies  have 
never  been  popularly  revised.  Indeed,  by  some  subtle 
transmutation  they  have  become  popular  appraisals, 
possibly  through  sheer  iteration.  In  that  Mr.  Lodge 
has  been  fortunate. 

But  has  he  been  really  fortunate?  Hasn't  he  had 
some  of  old  Zuan  Cabot's  hard  luck  ?  Hasn't  he,  too, 
touched  the  austere  coast  of  Labrador  ?  Does  he  sus- 


LODGE  187 

pect  the  great  fertile  mainland  he  has  so  narrowly 
missed?  Will  his  performance  stick;  will  it  prove  a 
permanent,  enduring  thing,  or  will  it  be  clouded  in  the 
obscurity  of  the  eleventh  man,  the  unfortunate  who 
has  played  his  game  with  some  skill  and  distinction, 
but,  when  the  final  appraisal  came  to  be  made,  just 
missed  getting  in  the  ranking  ten  ?  That  is  something 
for  posterity  to  decide  in  the  intervals  of  paying  off  the 
Liberty  Bonds. 

In  his  autobiographical  sketch  in  the  "Congressional 
Directory"  Mr.  Lodge  gives  his  profession  as  that  of 
literature.  I  think,  too,  it  is  his  true  avocation.  He 
has  an  agreeable  style,  a  well-stored  mind,  a  distinct 
viewpoint.  And  that  last,  a  distinct  viewpoint,  he  has 
not  always  had  in  politics.  He  has  not  always  known 
whether  to  cry  with  Miranda, 

How  beautiful  mankind  is!  0  brave  new  World! 
That  has  such  people  in't: 

or,  like  Emerson's  "fine  young  Oxford  gentleman," 
declare, 

There's  nothing  new  and  nothing  true  and  no  matter; 
or,  to  complain  with  the  young  Hamlet : 

The  time  is  out  of  joint;  O!  cursed  spite 
That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  it  right. 

Somewhere  in  Mr.  Lodge's  own  writings  is  this 
sentence:  "He,  whose  mournful  incapacity  for  the 
production  of  new  ideas  has  come  sharply  home  to  him, 
has  the  added  pang  of  knowing  how  eagerly  he  thirsts 
for  these  new  ideas  from  others  and  how  much  his 


188  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

ability  to  recognize  an  old  idea  has  been  developed  and 
increased."  This  may  or  may  not  have  a  wistful  auto- 
biographical significance.  I  don't  pretend  to  know.  I 
came  across  it  and  copied  it  down.  It  is  a  good  sen- 
tence, at  any  rate. 

If  Mr.  Lodge  had  devoted  himself  to  literature  with 
a  single  mind ;  if  he  had  been  content  to  be  a  man  of 
letters,  he  would  be  a  clearer,  stronger  figure  against 
the  national  horizon  than  he  is  to-day.  Or,  if  he  had 
given  to  politics  the  disinterestedness,  the  sweep  of 
interest,  the  broadness,  the  soundness  of  method  that 
he  brought  to  his  literary  work;  if  he  had  not  "prac- 
ticed the  license  of  political  usage";  if  he  had  not 
thrown  in  his  lot  with  the  partisan,  practical  politi- 
cians, there  would  be  another  story  to  tell  of  him. 

His  political  life  has  brought  him  nothing  real.  I 
take  his  own  telling ;  his  own  record  as  he  made  it  him- 
self for  the  "Congressional  Directory."  On  the  side 
of  letters  and  history  and  scholarship  he  sets  it  down 
that  he  wrote :  "The  Land  Law  of  the  Anglo-Saxons"  ; 
"Life  and  Letters  of  George  Cabot";  "Short  History 
of  the  English  Colonies  in  America"  ;  "Life  of  Alexan- 
der Hamilton";  "Life  of  Daniel  Webster"  ;  edited  the 
works  of  Alexander  Hamilton  in  nine  volumes;  "Stud- 
ies in  History";  "Life  of  Washington,"  2  volumes; 
"History  of  Boston";  "Historical  and  Political  Es- 
says" ;  "Hero  Tales  from  American  History"  ;  "Cer- 
tain Accepted  Heroes,"  and  other  essays;  "Story  of 
the  Revolution,"  2  volumes;  "Story  of  the  Spanish 


LODGE  189 

War";  "A  Fighting  Frigate,"  and  other  essays; 
"Early  Memories"  ;  "One  Hundred  Years  of  Peace"  ; 
"The  Democracy  of  the  Constitution"  ;  in  addition  to 
two  collections  of  speeches  and  addresses. 

Now,  quite  aside  from  the  quality  of  all  this  writing, 
the  mere  quantity  is  a  solid  achievement.  It  has  been 
recognized  as  such.  He  has  received  honorary  degrees 
from  Williams,  Yale,  Harvard,  Brown,  Clark  Univer- 
sity, Amherst,  Union,  Princeton,  and  Dartmouth. 
He  belongs  to  learned  societies  that  recognize  scholar- 
ship, culture,  and  intellectual  attainment :  The  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society ;  The  Virginia  Historical 
Society ;  The  Royal  Historical  Society  of  London ; 
The  American  Antiquarian  Society ;  The  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Letters ;  and  others  that  I  will 
not  take  the  space  to  recite. 

Against  this  body  of  sound  and  solid  work  and  these 
honors  in  the  field  of  literature  and  scholarship,  what 
has  Mr.  Lodge  to  set  down  in  the  way  of  honor  and 
distinction  that  politics  has  brought  him  ?  I  quote  the 
recital  he  himself  has  made :  member  of  the  Alaska 
Boundary  Commission ;  permanent  chairman  of  the 
Republican  National  Convention  in  1900  and  1908 ; 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  of  the 
Republican  National  Convention  of  1904  and  1916; 
temporary  and  permanent  chairman  of  the  Republican 
National  Convention  of  1920  ;  two  terms  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature ;  three  terms  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington ;  and  United  States 


I9o  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

Senator  since  1893.  Mr.  Lodge  sets  down  no  record  of 
his  enduring  achievements  and  constructive,  creative 
work  as  a  national  legislator,  and  neither  shall  I.  I 
would  be  at  a  loss,  as  presumably  he  was. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  this  dual  record  of  litera- 
ture and  politics  convicts  Mr.  Lodge  of  not  having 
made  the  most  of  his  great  opportunities.  The  ampli- 
tude of  the  provision  that  was  made  in  youth  for  him 
to  become  a  statesman,  the  freedom  from  material 
cares  and  burdens,  the  extraordinary  and  whole- 
hearted and  continuous  support  given  him  by  his 
State,  the  happy  fortune  of  an  intelligent  and  appre- 
ciative constituency  that  preferred,  at  any  rate  in  the 
Senate,  statesmen  to  politicians  —  all  these  blessings, 
I  venture  to  submit,  he  has  not  taken  full  advantage  of. 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  he  is  a  convinced  and 
narrow  partisan,  that  he  has  consistently  "practiced 
the  license  of  political  usage."  His  contributions  to 
letters  and  to  learning  have  been  obscured  by  his 
record  as  a  politician.  That  is  for  him  a  misfortune. 
He  has  not  played  his  hand  well ;  as  it  might  have  been 
played  by  a  man  of  larger  stature,  of  larger  vision.  He 
should  have  led  out  his  trumps. 


WHY  NOT  KNOX? 

ACUTELY  aware  as  I  am  of  the  irrelevance  of  the  dis- 
covery, I  will  no  longer  refrain  from  communicating 
and  making  public  record  of  the  fact  that  one  pair  of 
Mr.  Taft's  trousers  would  make  two  suits  and  a  short 
spring  overcoat  for  Mr.  Philander  Chase  Knox.  Mr. 
Taft  is  a  large  package.  Mr.  Knox  is  a  small  package. 
Yet  they  have  one  thing  in  common.  Each  of  them  hag 
been  offered  a  seat  on  the  Supreme  Bench  three  times. 
Such  a  thing  never  happened  to  any  other  man  in  our 
history.  It  is  a  record. 

Mr.  Taft  accepted  the  third  proffer.  Mr.  Knox  de- 
clined every  time.  He  had  an  idea  at  one  time  that 
some  day  his  mail  would  be  addressed  to  the  White 
House,  and  it  was  not  then  the  practice  of  the  Republi- 
can Party  to  select  its  presidential  candidate  from  the 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Later  the  experiment 
was  made,  but  it  hardly  will  be  repeated. 

Of  the  three  offers  of  a  place  on  the  highest  court 
that  came  to  Mr.  Knox,  two  were  made  by  President 
Roosevelt  and  the  third  by  President  Taft.  Here  are 
the  letters,  never  before  published,  I  believe,  in  which 
the  honor  was  tendered  Mr.  Knox  by  Mr.  Taft,  and 
Mr.  Knox's  reply : 


192  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE 

WASHINGTON 
November  2Qth,  igil 

DEAR  MR.  SECRETARY  : 

I  have  been  talking  over  with  Senator  Oliver  the 
regret  I  had  that  Pennsylvania  did  not  offer  a  lawyer 
for  the  vacancy  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  He  said,  Why 
not  Knox?  To  which  I  replied  that  I  supposed  you 
would  not  accept  the  position.  I  don't  know  what  I 
could  do  to  fill  your  present  place  if  you  would  accept, 
but  my  interest  in  the  Court  would  lead  me  to  put 
aside  all  other  considerations  to  secure  your  service  on 
that  great  tribunal. 

I  write  to  offer  the  place  to  you  formally  because,  if 
you  do  not  accept  now,  as  you  did  not  when  President 
Roosevelt  offered  it,  you  may  have  in  writing  evidence 
of  what  two  Presidents  have  thought  of  your  ability  to 
fill  the  highest  place  that  lawyers  can  aspire  to.  Don't 
think  for  an  instant  that  I  could  fill  your  present  place. 
I  don't  know  how  I  could  fill  it.  In  every  way  your 
service  has  been  most  gratifying  and  comforting. 
Without  you  at  the  head  of  the  family,  the  circle  would 
be  desolate ;  but  for  the  reasons  stated  above,  I  wish 
to  offer  the  Supreme  Bench  to  you  again. 

(Signed)  WM.  H.  TAFT 

November  2()th,  1911 
DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE 

WASHINGTON,  D.C. 
DEAR  MR.  PRESIDENT  : 

I  am  deeply  grateful  to  you  for  the  offer  ro  nominate 


Copyright  by  Harrit  S(  Swing 


SENATOR  P.  C.  KNOX 


KNOX  193 

me  for  the  place  upon  the  Supreme  Court  made  vacant 
by  the  death  of  Mr.  Justice  Harlan. 

To  be  thought  worthy  to  fill  so  eminent  a  place  by 
one  so  conspicuously  fitted  to  make  discriminating 
choice  is  in  itself  an  honor  rare  and  distinct. 

I  shall  omit  reference  to  the  reasons  which  have 
influenced  me  in  the  past  in  determining  that  such 
abilities  as  I  may  possess  for  the  public  service  do  not 
suggest  a  judicial  career,  beyond  saying  that  my  ex- 
alted conception  of  the  judicial  function  is  not  satisfied 
by  any  contemplation  of  my  own  aptitudes. 

Therefore,  with  the  sincerest  thanks  for  your  expres- 
sions of  confidence  and  over-generous  appraisement  of 
my  present  service,  I  will  ask  you,  dear  Mr.  President, 
to  accept  this  as  an  evidence  of  my  unwillingness  to 
sever  our  present  most  agreeable  official  relations. 

Faithfully  yours 
(Signed)  PHILANDER  C.  KNOX 

While  Mr.  Knox  must  share  with  Mr.  Taft  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  one  of  the  two  men  three  times  offered 
an  associate  justiceship  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  he  is 
the  only  person  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  who 
has  ever  been  called  away  from  a  performance  of  a 
musical  comedy  at  a  theater  to  have  such  an  honor 
thrust  upon  him.  On  a  sunshiny  November  afternoon, 
in  1907,  Mr.  Knox  resolved  to  do  a  thing  he  had  not 
done  in  many  years  ;  to  go  to  a  matinee  at  a  local  play- 
house of  Washington.  In  the  middle  of  the  second  act, 


194  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

an  usher  came  tiptoeing  down  the  aisle  with  a  whis- 
pered message  that  Mr.  Knox  was  wanted  at  the  White 
House  at  once.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  obey  the 
summons. 

Outside  the  theater  Mr.  Knox  learned  that  President 
Roosevelt  had  been  trying  to  find  him  at  the  Capitol 
and  at  his  residence,  and  that  the  messages  from  the 
White  House  were  urgent.  The  Senator  hastened 
across  Lafayette  Square  and  into  the  President's  office. 
There  Mr.  Roosevelt  told  him  that  he  wanted  him  to 
accept  the  vacancy  caused  by  Justice  Brown's  retire- 
ment. Mr.  Knox  declined,  leaving  the  way  open  for 
Attorney- General  Moody  to  scale  the  dizzy  height. 
When  Justice  Shiras  retired,  the  tender  of  his  seat  in 
the  Supreme  Court  was  made  to  Mr.  Knox  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt.  Mr.  Taft  had  previously  declined  both 
of  these  seats  before  they  were  offered  to  Mr.  Knox. 

At  mean  low  water  the  crown  of  Mr.  Knox's  head 
rises  not  more  than  five  feet  six  inches  above  sea  level. 
He  is  a  small  receptacle,  but  tightly  packed,  sharing 
with  Mr.  Elihu  Root  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  our 
most  highly  finished  domestic  products.  Because  he  is 
so  highly  finished,  Mr.  Knox  is  a  difficult  man  to  de- 
scribe. He  offers  no  point  of  attack.  This  does  not 
mean  that  he  presents  a  forbidding  front.  His  person- 
ality is  not  known  to  any  large  number  of  public  men 
in  Washington. 

Mr.  Knox  chooses  his  friends  with  the  careful  dis- 
crimination of  a  collector,  In  his  hours  of  ease  he  is  a 


KNOX  195 

teller  of  good  stories,  and  a  most  companionable  man. 
In  his  daily  walk  he  is  not  austere,  but  no  one  ever  saw 
anybody  —  even  a  Senator  —  clap  him  jovially  on  the 
back  and  call  him  "Phil."  Mr.  Knox  looks  more  like 
a  French  or  Italian  churchman,  whose  avocation  is 
diplomacy  and  statecraft,  than  an  American  politician. 
There  is  shrewdness  in  the  distinctive  droop  of  his  keen 
eyes.  His  face  is  an  immobile  mask  which  effectually 
conceals  his  thought. 

Every  person  who  is  born  great,  who  achieves  great- 
ness, or  who  has  greatness  thrust  upon  him  owes  cer- 
tain things  to  his  biographers.  Chiefly,  he  should  be 
born  of  poor  but  honest  parents,  and  from  his  infancy 
right  through  his  career  he  should  attach  readable 
anecdotes  to  his  name  and  fame.  But  what  is  one  to  do 
if  one's  hero  is  Philander  Chase  Knox  ?  Mr.  Knox  has 
never  conformed  to  any  of  the  established  rules  laid 
down  by  the  Biographers'  Union.  He  began  wrong. 

As  perplexing  as  anything  else  in  Mr.  Knox's  rise  in 
the  world  is  the  discovery  that  he  has  not  adhered  to 
the  conventional  maxims  and  precepts  for  attaining 
success.  He  did  not  have  the  inestimable  advantage  of 
being  born  of  poor  but  honest  parents.  He  has  over- 
come this  disadvantage  of  his  early  youth.  But  he  has 
been  no  more  successful  than  the  average  safety- 
deposit  vault  in  attaching  anecdotes  to  his  career  and 
public  service. 

In  despair  one  compares  him  with  a  Yale  lock  for 
inherent  secretiveness  and  ability  to  withstand  assault 


196  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

from  those  who  would  pluck  out  the  heart  of  his  mys- 
tery. The  real  Knox,  the  inner  Knox,  is  as  difficult  of 
access  and  as  hard  to  describe  as  the  mechanism  of  a 
hunting-case  Swiss  watch  locked  up  in  a  burglar-proof 
safe. 

Once  upon  a  time  a  writing  man  came  over  to  Wash- 
ington and  spent  a  day  in  the  White  House  with  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  Then  he  went  away  and  wrote  a  whole 
book  about  the  President  based  on  that  day's  observa- 
tions. Men  have  known  Mr.  Knox  for  years  and  years, 
and  could  not  if  their  lives  depended  upon  it  write  of 
him  one  thousand  words  of  intimate  characterization. 
Once,  long  ago,  somebody  seeking  his  anecdotal  "side" 
wrote  that  he  was  a  confirmed  and  brilliant  devotee  of 
the  game  of  billiards.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  has  never 
played  the  game.  It  is  a  problem  with  him  to-day 
whether  he  shall  become  an  expert  at  billiards,  or  issue 
a  sweeping  denial  of  the  stories  that  make  him  one. 

Mr.  Knox  in  the  Senate  Chamber  is  always  a  curious 
and  interesting  study.  A  certain  fastidiousness  of 
mind,  coupled  with  a  habit  of  aloofness,  keeps  him  out 
of  the  running  cross-fire  of  debate.  A  running  cross- 
fire of  debate  in  the  Senate  is  usually  a  mild  and  gentle 
affair.  It  lacks  the  cut-and-thrust  and  rough-and- 
tumble  features  of  a  general  debate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  It  is  nearly  always  conducted  with 
marked  decorum  and  dignity,  but  even  in  these  cir- 
cumstances Mr.  Knox  seldom  participates.  A  curious 
sameness  marks  his  participation  in  debate.  He  usu- 


KNOX  197 

ally  rises  to  correct  some  misstatement  of  fact.  Facts 
are  Mr.  Knox's  specialty.  His  precise  knowledge  ac- 
counts for  a  large  measure  of  his  success. 

It  is  not  of  record  that  Mr.  Knox  has  ever  said  or 
done  a  foolish  thing  in  his  public  career.  He  carefully 
counts  his  words  for  public  consumption.  When  a  man 
becomes  accustomed  to  receiving  large  sums  of  money 
for  his  opinions,  he  becomes  chary  of  venting  them 
loosely.  Mr.  Knox  is  not  sensational.  He  has  never 
coined  but  one  phrase,  or,  more  precisely,  given  a  new 
application  to  an  old  phrase,  that  has  met  with  tempo- 
rary but  widespread  popularity.  After  the  Northern 
Securities  case  had  been  decided  in  favor  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, capital  was  alarmed,  and  the  then  Attorney- 
General  promised  that  the  Department  of  Justice 
would  not  "run  amuck"  against  great  corporations. 
The  phrase  was  quickly  caught  up  and  had  its  brief 
day. 

Mr.  Knox,  as  Secretary  of  State  in  Mr.  Taft's  Cabi- 
net, was  paid  a  salary  of  $8000  a  year.  Each  of  the 
other  members  of  the  Cabinet  was  paid  $12,000.  Be- 
hind the  discrepancy  lies  the  only  known  instance  on 
record  where  Mr.  Knox  was  caught  napping.  One 
night,  when  it  was  already  known  far  and  wide  that  he 
was  to  head  Mr.  Taft's  Cabinet,  Mr.  Knox  was  reading 
in  the  library  of  his  house  in  Washington.  A  servant 
brought  in  the  card  of  a  newspaper  correspondent. 
The  visitor  was  at  once  shown  in.  Without  preface  he 
said: 


WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

"Senator,  are  you  familiar  with  paragraph  2,  section 
6,  article  I,  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States?" 

Senator  Knox  was  accustomed  to  being  regarded  as 
an  oracle  concerning  the  provisions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. He  had  heard  himself  referred  to  hundreds  of 
times  as  "one  of  our  greatest  Constitutional  authori- 
ties." Eminent  lawyers  had  consulted  him  on  knotty 
Constitutional  problems,  and  paid  him  well  for  his 
opinion.  Perhaps  he  had  come  to  believe  that  the  Con- 
stitution held  no  surprises  for  him.  He  was  destined  to 
receive  one  of  the  greatest  shocks  of  his  well-ordered 
life.  To  the  correspondent's  inquiry  he  responded : 

"Why,  certainly,  I  have  read  that  paragraph  many 
times,  but  I  can't  remember  its  provisions  without 
looking  it  up." 

"Will  you  be  good  enough  to  read  it  now ?" 

"Of  course,"  replied  Senator  Knox.  "I'll  be  glad  to. 
What  do  you  want  to  ask  me  about  it?"  And  he 
picked  up  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  from  his  table  and 
read: 

"No  Senator  or  Representative  shall,  during  the 
time  for  which  he  was  elected,  be  appointed  to  any 
civil  office  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States 
which  shall  have  been  created,  or  the  emoluments 
whereof  shall  have  been  increased,  during  such  time ; 
and  no  person  holding  any  office  under  the  United 
States  shall  be  a  member  of  either  House  during  his 
continuance  in  office." 

"Even  then  the  point  didn't  strike  me,"  said  Mr. 


KNOX  199 

Knox  afterwards.  "I  looked  up  at  my  friend  waiting 
for  him  to  tell  me  what  he  wanted  me  to  elucidate  for 
him. 

"Well/  he  said,  'doesn't  that  prevent  you  from  be- 
coming Secretary  of  State  in  Mr.  Taft's  Cabinet?' 

"Then  I  saw  it.  I  was  never  more  astonished  in  my 
life.  Of  course  it  did.  As  one  of  the  Senators  from 
Pennsylvania  I  had  been  present  and  had  voted  when 
the  salaries  of  the  Vice-President,  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  the  secretaries  of  the 
Executive  Departments  were  increased  to  $12,000  a 
year.  I  not  only  voted  for  the  increase  in  pay,  but 
against  all  the  amendments  that  sought  to  overthrow 
the  proposed  increase.  The  increase  was  carried  in  the 
Legislative,.  Executive,  and  Judicial  Appropriation 
Bill  providing  for  the  fiscal  year  of  1908.  I'd  forgotten 
all  about  it." 

Other  experts  on  the  Constitution  in  the  Senate  and 
House  sought  in  vain  to  discover  some  loophole  or 
roundabout  method  by  which  Mr.  Knox  might  legally 
be  paid  the  same  salary  as  other  Cabinet  members. 
But  no  way  was  found,  and  it  was  determined  to  put 
back  the  salary  of  the  Secretary  of  State  at  the  old 
figure,  $8000  a  year,  from  which  it  had  been  increased. 
Not  until  March  4,  1911,  would  Mr.  Knox's  term  as 
Senator  have  expired  ;  and  until  then  he  had  to  content 
himself  with  a  salary  $4000  less  per  annum  than  his  col- 
leagues received. 

Mr.  Knox's  ineligibility  was  brought  to  the  atten- 


200  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

tion  of  Washington  by  the  correspondent  of  a  Buffalo 
newspaper,  and  for  many  days  the  Capital  was  inclined 
to  find  a  huge  joke  upon  Elihu  Root,  President  Taft, 
and  Mr.  Knox  himself.  It  seemed  to  the  layman  that 
three  such  Constitutional  lawyers  and  jurists  should 
have  been  familiar  enough  with  the  Constitution  to 
foresee  the  contingency  before  it  was  pointed  out  to 
them.  Mr.  Knox  had  to  endure  much  chaffing  on  his 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  venerated  instrument  he  has 
expounded  so  learnedly  on  the  Senate  floor. 

Mr.  Knox  has  been  a  Washington  figure  since  1901, 
when  he  left  his  law  practice  to  become  McKinley's 
Attorney-General.  Apparently  finding  the  environ- 
ment congenial,  he  has  been  in  the  Cabinet  or  in  the 
Senate  ever  since.  After  McKinley's  death  Roosevelt 
continued  him  as  Attorney-General  and  Taft  made 
him  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Knox  has  either  got  a 
season  ticket  or  knows  the  right  people  in  Pennsyl- 
vania politics,  for  between  Cabinet  jobs  he  comes  to 
the  Senate  with  a  sureness  and  ease  that  indicate  per- 
fection of  arrangements  at  home. 

He  had  his  sixty-eighth  birthday  in  May,  1921,  but 
he  apparently  has  taken  out  a  writ  of  injunction,  or 
what  not,  against  the  usual  ravages  made  by  the 
years,  for  he  seems  as  fit  and  peppery  and  full  of  juice 
as  ever  he  was.  He  sits  up  and  takes  his  nourishment 
with  the  best  of  them.  He  still  cocks  up  his  tail  feath- 
ers and  can  be  as  irascible  and  as  assertive  as  he  was 
ten  and  more  years  ago  when  he  used  to  stand  up  to 


KNOX  201 

Mr.  Roosevelt.  He  was  one  of  the  few  men  (Elihu 
Root  was  another)  who  "talked  back"  to  Mr.  Roose- 
velt. There  used  to  be  a  story  current  that  one  day 
when  the  President  asked  the  advice  of  the  Attorney- 
General  on  a  problem  that  was  then  pressing,  Mr. 
Knox  replied  gravely 

"I  am  sorry  that  you  have  asked  for  my  opinion, 
because  up  to  the  present  time  your  proceedings  have 
been  free  from  any  taint  of  law." 

That  sort  of  thing.  Mr.  Roosevelt  once  wrote  of  Mr. 
Knox  in  a  private  letter:  "He  standing  for  the  law. 
and  I  for  rude  and  primitive  justice." 

To  me  there  is  a  certain  humor  in  the  circumstance 
that  Mr.  Knox  laid  the  foundation  of  his  career  and 
his  future  as  an  admiralty  lawyer  in,  of  all  places  in  the 
world,  Pittsburgh.  That  inland  town  seems  such  an 
odd  place  in  which  to  become  a  rich  and  successful 
practitioner  of  maritime  law.  But  when  Mr.  Knox  set 
up  his  practice  there  the  tonnage  passing  through  the 
port  of  Pittsburgh  was  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
American  port.  In  the  beginning  his  previous  experi- 
ence in  the  office  of  the  United  States  District  Attorney 
and  acquaintance  among  river  men  and  shipping  inter- 
ests turned  the  admiralty  business  of  that  region  in  his 
direction.  From  that  it  spread  and  grew  and  became 
diversified  and  very  profitable. 

The  impression  I  want  to  leave  with  you  is  of  a 
steadfast,  moderate,  alert-minded  man,  keen  and 
quick  in  his  insight,  thorough  and  deliberate  in  his 


202  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

mental  operations,  and  with  a  native  gift,  which  has 
been  cultivated,  for  the  underlying  philosophy  of  the 
law.  He  is  not  long-winded ;  he  doesn't  chatter.  He 
has  a  capacious,  acute,  and  subtle  mind.  Ever  since 
he  became  a  public  man  he  has  had  to  be  reckoned 
with.  He  is  an  outstanding  figure  in  the  Senate  to-day, 
and  would  be  even  a  larger  factor  if  he  chose  to  work 
harder;  but  he  doesn't.  He  is  through  with  hustling 
and  the  hurly-burly.  He  has  gone  his  full  distance,  he 
knows  it,  and  so  he  takes  it  easy. 

In  sum :  An  able  citizen,  at  ease  and  enjoying  the 
fruits  of  his  labors. 


HOOVER:  THE  FRIEND  OF  ALL 
CHILDREN 

THE  truth  about  the  sort  of  man  Herbert  Hoover  is 
lies  somewhere  between  what  the  Belgians  think  of 
him  and  what  Senator  Reed  and  some  of  his  other 
critics  say  of  him.  He  is  neither  a  demigod  nor  a  false 
alarm,  but  the  Belgians  have  got  a  better  line  on  him 
and  are  nearer  right  than  his  critics  will  publicly  ad- 
mit. It  suits  the  purposes  of  the  Missouri  Senator  and 
some  others  to  pretend  to  believe  that  Hoover  is  a  sort 
of  footnote  to  a  duke,  a  hybrid  English  product  out  of 
Ouida  or  The  Duchess,  a  languid  dweller  in  "palaces" 
attended  by  flunkeys  in  red  plush  breeches. 

"And,  laughing  lightly,  Bertie  Cecil  dipped  his 
tawny  mustaches  in  a  beaker  of  Chambertin." 

That  sort  of  thing.  There  never  was  a  more  gro- 
tesque and  ludicrous  misconception  about  any  man. 
Had  you  gone  along  Hornton  Street,  Kensington,  in 
London,  any  time  prior  to  1914,  and  asked  the  police- 
man on  the  beat,  or  the  passing  postman,  "Who  lives 
in  The  Red  House  ?"  I'll  lay  the  price  of  an  inner  tube 
against  a  gallon  of  gas  that  either  of  them  would  have 
replied,  "An  American  gentleman,  Sir.  Something  in 
the  City,  I  think.  'E  keeps  himself  very  quiet,  Sir." 

That  vague  London  phrase,  "Something  in  the 
City,"  covered  Mr.  Hoover's  identity  like  a  blanket 
prior  to  the  war.  except  among  mining  engineers  and 


204  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

mining  men.  He  was,  so  far  as  the  world  at  large  is 
concerned,  an  unknown,  though  rich  and  successful 
young  man. 

It  also  suits  the  purposes  of  some  persons  to  pretend 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Hoover's  present  stature  and  the 
lengthy  shadow  he  casts  is  the  creation  of  press  agents. 
It  is  sheer  courtesy  that  prompts  me  to  say  of  these 
that  it  suits  their  purposes  to  pretend  to  believe  these 
things  about  Hoover.  I  will  not  be  so  ill-natured  as  to 
do  them  the  injustice  of  accepting  these  fables  as  their 
honest  beliefs.  There  never  was  an  absurder  libel  than 
this  one  that  Hoover  was  made  by  his  press  agents. 
It  has  been  just  the  other  way  about.  No  press  agents 
erected  Mr.  Hoover.  He,  on  the  other  hand,  has  en- 
larged the  professional  reputation  and  increased  the 
income  and  earning  capacity  of  more  than  one  press 
agent.  He  gave  them  something  real  to  work  on  and 
with  ;  material  with  an  appeal  to  public  sentiment  and 
public  imagination. 

Most  of  the  talk  about  Hoover  and  his  press  agents 
and  his  craving  for  publicity  is  the  hard-wrung  and 
bitter  cry  of  envy.  Stated  broadly,  all  men  in  public 
life  and  at  the  head  of  large  public  enterprises  want 
publicity.  They  seek  it  as  a  great  part  of  their  reward. 
They  are  willing  to  pay  liberally  for  it  in  cash.  It  is 
not  Mr.  Hoover's  press  agents,  but  the  success  that 
has  attended  their  efforts  that  started  the  baying  of  the 
pack. 

It  is  in  order,  too?  to  observe,  as  bearing  on  Mr. 


HERBERT  HOOVER 


HOOVER  205 

Hoover's  qualities  and  capacity  and  present  stature, 
that  the  enterprises  in  which  he  has  been  engaged,  and 
which  have  brought  him  so  much  publicity,  have  not 
been  furtive  ones.  It  was  essential  to  the  feeding  of 
Belgium  and  occupied  France  and  the  later  relief  work 
in  Central  Europe  that  the  whole  world  should  know 
the  problem  and  how  it  was  being  solved  and  treated. 
It  was  absolutely  essential  that  the  whole  world  should 
take  an  active  personal  interest  in  it.  The  necessary 
thing  was  to  arouse  a  wide  interest,  to  inflame  the 
imagination  and  enlist  the  good-will  and  active  partici- 
pation of  the  world.  Otherwise  Belgium  would  have 
starved  as  Russia  has  starved  and  as  China  has 
starved.  Publicity  was  a  tool  and  used  as  a  tool.  It 
was  equally  true  of  the  Food  Administration  job  after 
we  got  into  the  war.  There  were  no  laws  to  enforce 
wheatless  days  and  meatless  days  and  heatless  days 
and  gasless  Sundays.  They  were  enforced  by  an  edu- 
cated public  sentiment  created  by  an  intelligent 
publicity. 

Yet,  oddly  enough,  all  this  flood  of  publicity  has  left 
Hoover's  personality  as  unknown  as  it  ever  was.  It  was 
Hoover's  public  business  that  got  the  publicity. 
Hoover's  work,  Hoover's  problems,  Hoover's  methods 
in  solving  those  problems  are  fully  known.  He  took  a 
chance  when  he  invited  the  world  to  participate  and 
look  on  when  he  took  up  the  Belgian  business,  for  if 
that  had  been  a  fiasco  he  would  have  been  one  of  the 
niost  spectacular  failures  in  all  history.  The  Hoover 


206  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

publicity  has  not  disclosed  and  revealed  the  Hoover 
personality.  People  still  come  to  Washington  and  ask, 
"What  sort  of  fellow  is  this  man  Hoover?  What  is  he 
really  like  when  you  come  to  know  him?" 

Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  don't  know  that  I  have  ever 
come  really  to  know  him.  He  is  one  of  the  shyest, 
most  sensitive,  most  modest,  most  inarticulate  of  men 
in  his  private  relations.  If  it  were  not  for  his  known 
public  achievements,  I  do  not  think  I  should  ever  sus- 
pect him  of  great  or  exceptional  capacities.  He  talks 
very  little,  and  then  only  by  fits  and  starts.  He  does 
not  say  bright,  clever,  or  startling  things.  He  has 
no  gift  at  phrase-making  or  brilliant  or  improvised 
characterization.  He  can  make  himself  interesting, 
however,  when  the  mood  takes  him. 

I  heard  him  talk  one  night  about  traveling  in  the 
interior  of  China  in  the  long  ago  before  the  Boxer 
troubles.  It  was  as  fascinating  and  enthralling  a  nar- 
rative as  I  ever  heard.  Simply  told,  full  of  light  and 
color,  keen  and  salient  observations  and  savored  with 
humor.  That  was  a  rare  instance  within  my  own  ex- 
perience. 

Then  one  day  a  door  was  opened  to  me  by  a  child, 
and  it  has  led  me  to  believe  that  children  know  Hoover 
sooner  and  better  than  grown-ups ;  that  he  reveals 
himself  to  them,  and  throws  down  all  the  barriers  that 
his  shyness  erects  against  the  world  of  adults.  I  am 
indebted  to  Miss  Jean  Kellogg,  the  young  daughter  of 
Vernon  Kellogg,  for  opening  the  door.  She  told  me  one 


HOOVER  207 

evening,  with  shining,  dancing  eyes  and  glowing  cheeks, 
of  a  dam  she  and  Mr.  Hoover  and  Allan  (Hoover's 
son)  were  building  across  some  stream.  She  told  me  of 
Hoover,  wading  in  the  water  "with  all  his  clothes  on" 
and  wet  and  muddy  to  the  arm-pits,  as  he  helped  to 
lay  the  stones  and  fetch  clay  and  to  chink  the  cracks. 
It  was  clear  that  she  and  Hoover  were  pals  ;  that  they 
were  on  terms  of  intimacy  and  understanding  that  had 
been  denied  some  of  his  closest  associates  in  larger 
affairs. 

The  story  interested  me,  and  I  was  delighted  to  be 
invited  to  come  to  a  picnic  one  hot  summer  morning 
and  assist  at  the  completion  of  the  dam.  We  drove  out 
the  Conduit  Road  toward  Cabin  John  Bridge,  turned 
off  into  a  dirt  road  into  the  woods,  and  left  the  car. 
A  little  way  through  the  underbrush  brought  us  to 
what  is  known  in  Virginia  as  a  ''run,"  in  New  England 
as  a  "crick,"  and  down  in  my  part  of  the  world  as  a 
large  "branch"  or  small  creek.  In  brief,  a  stream  of 
the  minor  sort,  making  its  way  down  from  the  hills, 
over  a  rocky  bottom,  to  the  Potomac. 

The  job  that  morning  was  to  fetch  stones,  to  dig 
clay,  to  make  sluiceways  and  spills,  and  to  put  in  place 
two  overshot  waterwheels.  I  saw  Hoover  walk  into  the 
water  "with  all  his  clothes  on."  I  saw  him  muddy  and 
wet  to  the  waist,  entirely  absorbed  and  centered  in 
what  he  was  doing.  I  discovered  that  he  could  play 
with  children  on  terms  of  absolute  ease,  intimacy,  and 
equality.  He  wasn't  at  all  consciously  "amusing  the 


208  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

children."  He  was  having  a  good  time ;  just  as  much 
fun  as  they  were.  It  interested  me  that  his  idea  of  a 
day's  holiday  was  to  devote  it  to  children  —  and  to 
building  something.  It  interested  me  even  more  that 
children  accepted  him  on  easy,  equal  terms.  Plenty 
of  grown  people  want  to  play  with  children,  but  don't 
know  how.  They  try,  but  the  children  stand  aloof.  It 
is  this  quality  in  Hoover  that  I  think  I  have  discerned 
plus  what  he  has  done  in  Europe  that  led  me  to  call 
him  "The  Friend  of  All  Children."  If  my  observation 
has  any  truth  and  validity,  it  throws  a  light  on  the 
passionate  zeal  he  has  shown  in  feeding  the  children  of 
Europe  since  the  war. 

Vernon  Kellogg  says  that,  when  he  went  to  Poland 
in  1919  to  find  out  the  exact  condition  and  the  actual 
food  needs  of  the  people  there,  a  single  unpremeditated 
sentence  in  his  report  seemed  most  to  catch  Hoover's 
eye  and  hold  his  attention.  It  did  more  ;  it  wetted  his 
eyes.  This  sentence  was:  "We  see  very  few  children 
playing  in  the  streets  of  Warsaw."  The  children  were 
not  strong  enough  to  play.  They  could  not  run  ;  many 
could  not  walk ;  some  could  not  even  stand  up.  It  led 
to  a  special  concentration  of  effort  on  behalf  of  the 
children.  All  this  was  after  the  armistice ;  after  Bel- 
gium and  occupied  France  had  been  fed  while  the  war 
was  on. 

And  these  children  of  Poland  were  not  the  only  ones. 
The  Hoover  family  in  Eastern  Europe  numbered  at 
least  two  and  a  half  million  hungry  children.  I  know 


HOOVER  209 

of  my  own  knowledge  that  Hoover  never  sought  any 
applause  for  this  performance.  He  never  put  himself 
in  the  way  of  being  lionized.  There  is  ample  evidence 
that  when  he  went  into  Belgium  during  the  war  he 
tried  to  keep  his  presence  unknown.  He  would  not  go 
if  he  could  help  it  to  the  children's  canteens. 

I  have  two  stories  to  tell  about  Hoover  and  the 
Germans.  They  illumine  both.  One  of  them  became 
public  after  the  armistice,  the  other  is  told  by  Mrs. 
Hoover.  Chronologically  and  under  the  rule  of  place 
aux  dames  her  story  comes  first. 

At  the  time  of  the  Boxer  troubles  in  China,  the 
Hoovers  were  beleaguered  in  Tientsin.  In  their  com- 
pound they  had  a  cow  and  the  cow  had  a  calf.  Under 
the  circumstances,  it  seemed  an  admirable  arrange- 
ment. It  meant  fresh  milk,  and  if  the  siege  continued 
a  long  time  it  meant  fresh  meat.  One  day  the  cow  dis- 
appeared ;  stolen,  of  course.  Hoover  wanted  his  cow. 
Problem :  How  to  find  a  cow  in  Tientsin  ?  The  town 
was  in  a  state  of  siege.  It  was  full  of  Allied  troops. 
What  to  do?  A  happy  thought.  That  night  Hoover 
took  a  lantern,  a  Chinese  boy,  and  his  little  calf  with  a 
halter  about  its  neck  and  walked  the  dark  streets.  As 
they  went,  the  calf  bleated  for  its  lost  mamma.  As  they 
went  through  the  black  town  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
there  was  no  sound  but  this  S.O.S.  from  the  calf  to  its 
lost  parent.  Presently  there  came  from  the  compound  of 
the  German  troops  in  the  town  a  long  answering  moo. 
Hoover  advanced  upon  the  sentry  at  the  gate  and  said : 


210  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

"I  want  my  cow." 

The  sentry  said  :  "  Is  the  calf  outside  the  calf  of  the 
cow  inside?" 

Who  could  doubt  it  ? 

Very  well,  then.  The  calf  outside  must  of  a  necessity 
join  the  cow  inside.  It  did.  Hoover  went  home  with 
his  lantern,  and  his  Chinese  boy,  but  without  his  calf. 

Two  of  the  Germans  who  made  most  difficulty  for 
Hoover  and  the  Belgium  Relief  Commission  were 
Baron  von  de  Lancken  and  his  assistant,  Dr.  Rieth. 
They  did  as  much  or  more  than  anybody  to  make  life 
and  work  difficult  for  the  Hoover  men  in  Belgium. 
Yet  it  was  this  pair  that  proposed  to  Hoover,  after  the 
armistice,  to  arrange  with  him  for  getting  food  into 
Germany  through  the  Relief  Commission.  They  re- 
ceived this  reply  by  telegraph  : 

"Mr.  Hoover's  personal  compliments  and  request 
to  go  to  hell.  If  Mr.  Hoover  has  to  deal  with  Germany 
for  the  Allies,  it  will  at  least  not  be  with  such  a  precious 
pair  of  scoundrels." 

The  Belgianswere  often  puzzled  and  hurt  by  Hoover's 
plain  avoidance  of  their  deep  expressions  of  gratitude. 
The  Belgian  Government  tried  to  thank  him,  but  he 
would  accept  no  decorations.  But  King  Albert  found 
a  way.  One  day  at  La  Panne,  just  after  the  fighting 
ended,  Hoover  was  lunching  with  the  King  and  Queen. 
After  lunch  the  Belgian  Cabinet  appeared.  Before 
them  all  the  King  created  a  new  order  without  medal, 
ribbon,  or  button,  or  any  insignia.  Hoover  is  the  only 


HOOVER 

member.  He  was  pronounced  :  "Honorary  Citizen  and 
Friend  of  the  Belgian  Nation." 

If  I  am  any  judge  of  motive,  this  whole  job  of  feed- 
ing the  hungry  in  Europe  was  a  heart  impulse  and  not 
a  head  impulse.  It  was  executed  as  a  piece  of  efficiency 
engineering  in  terms  of  calories,  and  sustenance  units, 
and  overhead  charges,  and  transportation  and  dis- 
tribution expenses,  but  it  was  conceived,  I  believe,  in 
terms  of  quick  sympathy  and  a  heart-sickness  and 
hurt  that  little  children  should  die  of  starvation. 

Hoover  is  an  efficiency  engineer  by  education.  He 
got  that  in  the  schools.  It  was  taught  him.  But  pri- 
marily he  is  an  artist,  with  an  artist's  creative  imagina- 
tion and  sensitiveness.  He  has  been  in  business  all  his 
life,  except  through  the  war  period.  He  has  dealt  and 
lived  with  business  men.  He  has  more  influence  to-day 
with  business  men  than  any  other  man  in  Washington. 
They  are  more  at  their  ease  with  him  than  with  any 
other  man  in  the  Administration.  They  think  of  him 
and  deal  with  him  as  one  of  themselves.  And  yet  he  is 
as  unlike  the  average  business  man  as  any  could  be. 
He  wears  no  slight  aspect  of  the  merchant,  or  trader, 
or  manufacturer,  or  dealer  in  commodities.  If  you  met 
him  and  didn't  know  who  he  was,  you  would  be  at  a 
loss  to  place  him,  for  he  has  no  vocational  stigmata. 
He  has  led  a  life  of  romance  and  adventure  in  all  parts 
of  the  world :  Colorado,  Mexico,  Korea,  the  Malay 
Straits  Settlement,  South  Africa,  Burma,  China, 
Australia,  Russia.  That  is  a  fair  spread  of  country. 


212  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

In  the  end,  and  after  his  initial  experiences,  Hoover 
became  a  creative  artist  in  mining.  He  developed  a 
new  department  in  his  profession.  He  made  good 
mines  out  of  bad  ones ;  successful  ones  out  of  unsuc- 
cessful ones  ;  solvent  mining  concerns  out  of  bankrupt 
mining  concerns.  He  made  money  and  a  reputation 
in  the  process.  He  did  this  in  the  field,  not  on  the  ex- 
changes. He  dealt  with  materials  and  men  and  trans- 
portation on  sea  and  land,  and  housing,  organization, 
system  —  not  bits  of  paper. 

All  that  creative  energy  and  trained  efficiency  and 
engineering  skill  that  went  first  into  mining,  then  was 
switched  on  a  day's  notice  to  Belgian  relief,  and  again 
without  intermission  to  Food  Administration  and  back 
to  child-feeding  in  Europe,  is  even  now  going  full  tilt  in 
the  Government  at  Washington. 

The  Department  of  Commerce,  which  is  Mr. 
Hoover's  present  single  nominal  and  titular  charge,  is 
breaking  out  of  bounds  almost  every  day.  It  is  en- 
larging its  capacities  and  functions.  It  is  being  remade. 
It  will  be  a  different  thing  when  Hoover  gets  through 
with  it.  But  beyond  that  he  shares  with  Mr.  Hughes 
the  responsibility  of  being  one  of  Mr.  Harding's  chief 
advisers.  He  knows  about  Europe  and  foreign  affairs 
and  conditions.  He  knows  about  labor.  He  is  not 
destitute  of  acquaintance  with  the  broad  subject  of 
finance. 

But  he  doesn't  know  about  politics.  His  adventure, 
if  it  may  be  so  called,  toward  the  Presidency  was  sadly 


HOOVER  213 

mishandled,  not  only  by  Hoover,  but  by  all  those  as- 
sociated with  him  in  the  enterprise.  There  undeniably 
and  clearly  existed  a  widespread  and  strong  public 
sentiment  for  Hoover  for  President  in  1920.  It  had 
strong  newspaper  support  from  diverse  and  unexpected 
sources.  Yet  nothing  was  made  of  it.  It  was  never 
organized  ;  it  was  never  used  ;  it  was  dissipated. 

Mr.  Hoover  is  in  political  office  now,  but  not  "in 
politics."  There  is  a  difference.  I  haven't  the  faintest 
notion  whether  he  intends  to  go  into  politics,  whether 
he  intends  to  seek  political  preferment  —  run  for 
office  ;  but  if  he  does  I  want  to  be  there  or  thereabouts. 
It  will  be  interesting.  I  should  like  to  see  what  happens 
if  he  applies  his  imagination,  his  creative  ability,  and 
his  practical  engineering  efficiency  to  national  politics 
as  it  is  now  organized  and  played  among  us.  He  has 
proved  himself  in  two  widely  separated  fields  one  of  the 
most  competent  men  of  this  generation.  He  is  only 
forty-seven  years  old ;  a  young  man  to  be  a  world 
figure.  The  interesting  thing  and  the  speculative  thing 
about  him  at  this  juncture,  in  his  new  field  as  a  par- 
ticipant in  the  administration  of  government,  is,  what 
will  he  do  next,  how  far  will  he  go  ?  He  has  made  him- 
self a  springboard  for  a  tremendous  leap.  Will  he  take 
it?  I,  for  one,  intend  to  stick  around  and  see  what 
happens. 


/ 


UNDERWOOD:  HE  SUPPLIES  BALM 
TO  GILEAD 

IT  is  always  grateful  and  refreshing,  and  particularly 
so  on  a  steaming  hot  and  humid  July  afternoon,  to 
wander  into  the  Senate  galleries  and  observe  the  Hon- 
orable Oscar  Wilder  Underwood,  senior  Senator  from 
the  sovereign  State  of  Alabama,  purveying  balm  to  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs  in  the  windowless  and  shut-in 
chamber  below.  He  speaks  to  them  in  words  of  truth 
and  soberness.  Long  ago  he  discovered  that  a  word 
fitly  spoken  is  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver. 
To  him  it  was  not  said  in  vain,  let  your  speech  be 
always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt.  Such  is  his 
habit.  He  is  at  his  best  when 

Dire  combustion  and  confused  events 
New  hatched  to  the  woful  time 

must  be  confronted,  smoothed  over,  and  the  wrinkles 
taken  out.  In  such  troubled  and  angry  crises  it  is  his 
invariable  role  and  his  natural  inclination  to, 

Speak  gently!  'tis  a  little  thing 
Dropped  in  the  heart's  deep  well; 
The  good,  the  joy,  that  it  may  bring 
Eternity  shall  tell. 

In  fine,  it  is  Mr.  Underwood's  great  talent  to  bring 
men  to  be  of  one  mind  in  an  house.  That  is  why  he 
naturally  and  seemingly  without  effort  rises  to  the 
leadership  of  any  free  assemblage  of  men. 

In  the  present  piping  summer  of  the  blessed  year 


Copyright  by  Harris  if  Swing 

SENATOR  OSCAR  W.  UNDERWOOD 


UNDERWOOD  215 

1921,  on  the  5th  day  of  July,  Mr.  Lodge,  the  majority 
leader  in  the  Senate,  in  the  sticky  heat  rose  in  his  place 
and  proposed  that  Congress  take  a  recess  of  three 
weeks.  Mr.  Underwood,  as  minority  leader,  concurred 
in  the  proposal.  I  quote  him  a  bit  just  to  show  his 
general  style : 

"Senators  are  no  different  from  any  other  set  of  men. 
They  can  work  effectively  just  so  far,  and  then  their 
mental  capacity  for  work  breaks  down  and  they  will 
not  work.  I  am  talking  about  the  men  who  work,  who 
carry  the  responsibility  of  making  legislation  in  their 
own  heads  and  on  their  shoulders.  If  with  this  minor 
legislation  you  drive  this  team  through  July  and  into 
August,  when  the  time  comes  that  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives shall  send  to  this  body  the  great  problem 
that  is  before  us,  the  question  of  solving  the  finances  of 
this  country  and  putting  them  on  a  safe  and  sound 
basis,  you  will  not  have  a  Senate  here  to  attend  to  busi- 
ness, or  one  that  is  capable  of  attending  to  business. 

"  I  do  not  say  that  theoretically.  I  have  tried  it.  I 
was  honored  once  by  being  selected  as  leader  of  the 
body  at  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol.  I  had  the  same 
responsibility  on  my  shoulders,  and  I  reached  the 
point  once  where  I  wanted  to  adjourn  Congress 
through  a  long,  hot  summer,  but  other  influences 
insisted  that  I  should  not  do  so,  and  I  drove  that  Con- 
gress through  a  long,  hot  summer,  and  then  critical 
legislation  came  up  for  consideration.  I  could  not  get 
a  quorum,  and  the  only  way  I  brought  an  effective 


216  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

quorum  there  was  by  having  passed  a  resolution  cut- 
ting off  the  pay  of  every  Member  of  Congress  every 
day  that  he  did  not  answer  a  roll  call.  It  was  unfor- 
tunate, it  was  drastic,  but  it  had  to  be  done  in  order  to 
function. 

"  I  hope  the  Senator  will  bring  this  to  a  decisive  vote 
on  the  real  issue.  Of  course,  I  will  not  interfere,  as  it 
is  his  business,  not  mine,  and  I  will  not  propose  an 
amendment,  but  I  would  like  to  see  him  extend  the 
time  one  week  so  as  to  give  men  who  live  a  distance 
time  to  get  home  and  attend  to  their  business." 

At  this  point,  Mr.  Lodge  broke  in  to  say,  "That  is 
what  I  was  going  to  suggest,"  and  he  at  once  modified 
his  proposal  to  a  four-weeks  recess. 

Before  the  vote  was  taken  Mr.  Underwood  had  a 
colloquy  with  Mr.  Norris.  He  began  his  reply  with 
these  disarming  words : 

"Mr.  President,  I  love  the  Senator  from  Nebraska, 
not  for  his  intellectual  resources,  but  for  his  goodness 
of  character.  He  loves  his  friends  and  he  always  wants 
peace  and  enjoyment  and  quietude  in  the  world,  pro- 
vided the  balance  of  the  Senate  goes  along  his  way." 

Always  the  gentle  approach,  you  see.  From  the 
very  beginning  that  has  been  his  style.  Always  he  has 
been  like  that.  When  he  first  tried  to  come  to  Congress 
in  1894  his  election  was  contested.  He  was  thrown  out 
and  his  Republican  opponent  was  seated.  Pleading  his 
case,  Mr.  Underwood  silver-tongued  the  boys  for  the 
first  and  last  time  of  which  I  can  find  any  record  in  his 


UNDERWOOD  217 

life.  The  young  Oscar  was  raised  in  the  Virginia  school 
of  manners  and  was  early  taught  to  say  that  he  had  had 
a  good  time  when  he  left  the  party.  His  silver  tonguing 
was  good  standard  stuff,  too.  He  used  the  familiar 
place-the-chalice-to-your-lips  gambit,  and  these  are  the 
words  he  said : 

"  I  say  to  you  that  bold  was  the  man  who  stole  the 
sacred  fire  of  Heaven  and  hid  it  in  a  hollow  reed,  but 
not  less  bold  is  he  who  steals  the  elective  franchise  of 
the  people  of  Alabama  and  hides  it  in  a  hollow  deci- 
sion of  this  House.  You  have  put  the  bitter  cup  to  the 
lips  of  the  people  of  Alabama,  but  I  warn  you  to  pause 
lest  some  day  even-minded  Justice  shall  place  the 
chalice  to  your  own  lips. 

"I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  your  kind  attention." 

You  see  he  never  forgot  to  be  polite  even  to  his 
executioners.  A  Sydney  could  do  no  more.  He  was 
never  more  characteristic. 

Nowadays  when  he  is  not  conciliating  or  smoothing 
the  wrinkled  front  of  some  parliamentary  fracas,  he 
usually  talks  about  pig  iron  and  steel  billets  and  such 
like  things,  which,  as  young  fictionists  so  like  to  say, 
do  not  intrigue  me.  Nor  would  they  you,  I  suspect, 
at  this  juncture,  and  so  I  pass  rapidly  on,  merely 
remarking  for  the  sake  of  the  record  that  Mr.  Under- 
wood is  one  of  the  acknowledged  and  conceded  tariff 
experts.  He  knows  all  about  the  schedules  from  aard- 
varks,  skins  of,  undressed,  in  bales,  or  alive  and  on  the 
hoof,  through  alcohol  and  alum  to  "articles  not  other- 


WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

wise  enumerated"  in  the  omnibus  section,  and  paying 
a  duty  of  five  per  cent  ad  valorem. 

He  is  the  author  of  the  tariff  act  under  which  we  are 
now  protected  from  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  Mr.  Under- 
wood believes  in  that  sort  of  tariff  even  if  he  does  come 
from  a  strongly  protectionist  section  of  Alabama. 
He  comes  from  the  Birmingham  district  where  they 
produce  coal,  iron,  steel,  and  kindred  products  notably 
susceptible  to  chills  and  blights  in  the  draught  of 
foreign  competition.  Ask  any  steel  master  and  he  will 
tell  you  how  steel  billets  stir  uneasily  in  their  sleep  and 
are  unhappy  unless  they  are  lying  snug  behind  high 
tariff  walls. 

But  all  that  is  aside  from  Mr.  Underwood.  He  is 
normal.  Normal  pulse,  normal  temperature,  normal 
respiration ;  everything  normal.  He  is  conservative, 
too,  but  no  more  so  than  the  Tropic  of  Cancer.  He  is 
indigenous  to  the  north  temperate  zone  with  a  mild, 
equable  temperament,  and  if  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  salubrious  disposition,  his  is.  He  is  quiet,  bland, 
suave,  smiling,  patient,  methodical,  never  frets,  never 
worries ;  at  least,  he  never  lets  you  catch  him  doing 
it.  Sagacious,  fair-minded,  steadfast,  and  firm  in  his 
dealings,  open  and  aboveboard  in  negotiation,  he  has 
shown  fine  qualities  of  leadership  in  a  parliamentary 
body. 

For  a  great  many  years,  I  am  told,  there  has  been 
a  saying  in  Alabama  that  no  man  ever  became  ac- 


UNDERWOOD  219 

quainted  with  Oscar  Underwood  without  wanting  to 
do  something  for  him.  No  man  in  politics  or  in  public 
life  could  ask  for  a  greater  asset.  It  comes  near  telling 
the  whole  story  of  Underwood's  successful  and  pleasant 
career  in  politics.  He  has  never  engaged  in  unseemly 
wrangles  and  squabbles.  He  has  never  had  to  be  ag- 
gressive and  disagreeable  to  attain  a  goal.  He  has 
come  on  to  be  a  figure  in  the  world  through  the  exer- 
cise of  an  invariable  and  unfailing  courtesy.  That  is 
something  to  have  done  in  an  occupation  so  given  to 
disputes,  quarrels,  and  controversy  as  present-day 
politics.  In  his  own  party  and  in  his  own  way  he  is  as 
great  an  emollient  as  Mr.  Harding  himself.  They  are 
both  healing  and  soothing,  and  give  out  an  impression 
of  kindliness  and  good-will.  Mr.  Underwood  has  found 
his  true  vocation  in  being  leader  of  a  Democratic 
minority.  It  is  a  much  more  difficult  task  than  leading 
a  majority  in  either  branch  of  Congress,  and,  I  venture 
to  assert,  there  has  never  been  a  man  in  Washington 
better  fitted  for  the  job. 

Although  I  know  from  bitter  experience  that  political 
prophecy  is  the  most  gratuitous  form  of  folly,  I  dare 
commit  myself  to  the  flat  statement  that  so  long  as  he 
remains  in  national  politics  Oscar  Underwood  will  be 
a  presidential  possibility.  He  is,  as  the  saying  goes, 
presidential  timber.  As  it  seems  to  be  our  custom  tc 
elect  alternately  a  peppery,  lively  President  and  then  a 
sedate,  calm  and  placid  one,  probably  Mr.  Underwood 
won't  have  a  chance  until  1928.  But  it  seems  a  safe 


220  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

bet  that  he  will  be  voted  for  again  in  a  Democratic 
National  Convention. 

At  this  point,  and  without  further  delay,  I  must  have 
a  special  paragraph  devoted  to  the  Underwood  hair. 
No  sketch  of  him  is  complete  without  it.  It  is  always 
done,  even  by  the  apprentice  biographers  not  yet  in 
the  union.  One  might  as  well  write  of  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  say  nothing  of  his  teeth,  or  Mr.  Hughes  and  leave 
out  the  whiskers,  or  Mr.  Taft  and  not  mention  his 
girth  and  his  judicial  temperament.  It  simply  can't 
be  done. 

Very  well,  then.  Mr.  Underwood's  hair  is  sleek  and 
slick  and  always  parted  very  precisely.  It  is  never 
ruffled,  never  tousled.  There  is  a  line  for  every  hair 
and  every  hair  is  on  its  line.  Nothing  but  his  shaving 
mirror  ever  saw  a  hair  of  his  head  out  of  place.  No 
matter  how  hot  it  is  or  how  cold  or  how  the  stormy 
winds  may  blow,  the  barometric  pressure  on  the  Under- 
wood hair  never  varies.  It  is  commonly  supposed  by 
the  less  observant  that  Mr.  Underwood  parts  his  hair 
in  the  middle.  This  is  not  accurate.  I  have  looked 
down  on  the  top  of  his  head  for  fifteen  years  from  the 
galleries  of  the  House  and  Senate,  and  I  ought  to 
know.  He  does  not  part  his  hair  on  the  QOth  meridian 
or  Greenwich  mean  time,  but  a  little  to  one  side  ;  say, 
daylight  saving  time.  Then  he  slicks  it  straight  down 
and  it  stays  put.  So  much  for  that. 

Mr.  Underwood  has  never  made  the  welkin  ring.  He 
js  not  noisy.  With  the  arms  hanging  naturally  by  the 


UNDERWOOD  221 

side  and  breathing  from  the  diaphragm,  he  enunciates 
pleasantly,  slowly,  distinctly.  He  does  not  orate,  yet 
he  is  an  effective  albeit  a  rather  monotonous  speaker. 
How  he  escapes  being  unctuous  is  a  mystery,  but  he 
is  not.  His  chief  political  and  personal  qualities  are 
patience  and  an  even  serene  good  temper.  He  dis- 
played both  of  them  to  a  notable  degree  one  day  when 
he  brought  a  wool  bill  into  the  House.  It  was  a  highly 
controversial  proposal  and  Mr.  Underwood  was  ques- 
tioned about  it.  Four  times  he  was  asked  to  explain  it, 
and  four  times  he  responded  in  detail.  The  fourth 
questioner  who  had  come  into  the  chamber  late  was 
hooted  by  the  House  when  he  asked  to  be  told  all  about 
it,  but  Mr.  Underwood  insisted  on  giving  him  the  full 
explanation  that  he  had  given  the  others  and  in  just  as 
much  detail.  As  an  exhibition  of  courtesy  and  un- 
ruffled good  temper  it  won  the  House. 

I  venture  to  say  Underwood  hasn't  an  enemy  in 
either  chamber.  Bryan  is  the  only  politician  that  he 
doesn't  get  on  with  and  they  have  had  some  conspicu- 
ous rows,  one  in  particular,  in  which  Mr.  Underwood 
had  the  support  and  sympathy  of  his  colleagues  in 
Congress. 

Underwood  is  as  typical  of  the  New  South,  the  busi- 
ness, industrial,  and  commercial  South  as  dear  old 
Senator  Morgan  and  General  Pettus,  his  famous  pred- 
ecessors in  the  Senate  from  Alabama,  were  typical  of 
the  Old  South.  He  is  unlike  the  run  of  Southern  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  even  now,  Also  he  is  the  only 


222  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

representative  from  the  far  South  who  has  been  seri- 
ously considered  and  voted  for  in  national  convention 
by  his  party  for  the  presidency.  In  the  Baltimore 
Convention  of  1912  that  nominated  Wilson,  Under- 
wood ran  third  in  the  prolonged  balloting,  and  there 
are  not  lacking  politicians  who  believe  that  had  his 
name  not  been  withdrawn  he  might  have  been  nomi- 
nated. I  don't  know  about  that.  It  was  a  tenuous 
chance,  if  it  existed  at  all. 

Mr.  Underwood  has  been  in  Congress  now  continu- 
ously since  1896.  After  the  Republicans  put  the  bitter 
cup  to  his  lips  in  1 894  he  went  home  and  had  another 
and  successful  try  at  the  ensuing  election.  He  stayed 
in  the  House  until  1915,  a  matter  of  nineteen  years, 
when  he  moved  over  to  the  Senate.  It  took  him  seven- 
teen years  to  reach  the  leadership  of  the  House,  but  for 
fifteen  years  of  that  period  the  Democrats  were  in  the 
minority  and  the  House  leader  was  a  Republican.  He 
has  come  quickly  to  be  the  Democratic  leader  in  the 
Senate. 

Men  who  stay  long  enough  in  the  House  find  their 
level.  Not  a  few  men  who  come  to  Congress  are  leader- 
less  sheep.  This  is  not  a  slur  on  Congress.  It  is  equally 
true  of  the  arts,  the  professions,  business  and  religion. 
This  type  in  the  House  were  looking  for  guidance. 
There  came  to  be  a  saying  in  the  ruck  of  the  House : 
"It's  safe  to  follow  Underwood."  It  was,  too.  He  had 
a  following  before  the  leadership  came  to  him.  The 
Democrats  in  the  House  have  always  been  kittle 


UNDERWOOD  223 

cattle,  inclined  to  stampede,  not  susceptible  to  dis- 
cipline, full  of  views,  never  the  ordered  phalanx  the 
Republicans  have  presented.  Being  Democratic  leader 
was  never  a  sinecure,  but  Underwood  was  successful. 
He  proved  himself  a  master  hand  at  composing  differ- 
ences among  his  followers.  By  the  time  he  came  to  the 
Senate  his  capacities  were  known.  He  had  served  his 
apprenticeship.  The  leadership  passed  naturally  to 
him. 

There  are  two  sentences,  says  Plutarch,  inscribed 
upon  the  Delphic  oracle,  hugely  accommodated  to  the 
uses  of  man's  life : "  Know  thyself,"  and,  "  Nothing  too 
much,"  and  upon  these  all  other  precepts  depend. 
"Always,"  says  George  M.  Cohan,  "Always  leave  'em 
happy  when  you  say  good-bye."  And  upon  these  three 
precepts  is  founded  the  successful  career  of  Oscar  W. 
Underwood  who  supplies  the  balm  to  Gilead. 


BORAH:  THE  HEART  BOWED  DOWN 

I  DON'T  quite  know  why  William  Edgar  Borah  is  not  a 
larger  figure  in  the  world  than  he  is  to-day.  He  has 
been  in  the  Senate  since  1907,  a  participant  in  the  na- 
tional scene  with  an  assured  place  on  the  best  platform 
that  the  country  offers  to  any  man  who  desires  to  be- 
come known  and  to  be  heard.  In  the  Senate  he  has 
been  on  the  successful  and  popular  side  of  public  issues 
and  controversies  more  often  than  on  the  losing  side. 
Yet,  I  suspect  that  he  is  less  known  than  any  of  the 
outstanding  figures  in  the  whole  Washington  gallery. 
The  person  who  best  knows  Borah  has  been  heard  to 
say:  "William  would  enjoy  life  so  much  better  if  it 
wasn't  for  all  the  pleasant  things  in  the  world."  The 
secret  of  Borah's  failure  to  be  a  popular  hero  despite  all 
his  admirable  qualities  may  lie  in  this  cryptic  remark. 
It  was  made  just  after  Borah,  by  the  introduction  of  a 
resolution  in  the  Senate,  had  reduced  the  Harding 
inauguration  ceremonies  from  the  elaborate  festivities 
that  had  been  planned  —  parade,  inaugural  ball,  danc- 
ing in  the  streets,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing  —  to  the 
simple  and  bald  affair  that  it  became  on  the  East  porch 
of  the  Capitol.  Whatever  the  reason,  there  is  a  general 
sort  of  feeling  current  among  the  few  that  Borah  has 
never  received  quite  the  full  measure  of  popular  ap- 
plause and  recognition  that  he  has  deserved.  This 
feeling  is,  in  part,  based  upon  the  circumstance  that 


Copyright  by  Harrit  if  Swing 

SENATOR  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 


BORAH  225 

so  many  other  men  who  have  done  less  seem  somehow 
to  cast  larger  shadows. 

Mr.  Borah  is  not,  as  we  put  it  in  our  vivid,  nervous, 
native  tongue,  a  crab.  Nor  is  he  a  gloom,  though  he 
can  at  times  approach  perilously  near  the  border  line  of 
that  category.  But  certainly  his  is  the  heart  bowed 
down.  He  is  more  inclined  to  view  with  alarm  than  to 
point  with  pride. 

Life  to  him  is  real,  life  is  earnest,  and  there  is  much 
to  be  done  before  the  grim  reaper  cometh.  He  is  a  seri- 
ous man  full  of  serious  thoughts  and  if  he  has  a  light 
and  festive  or  frolicsome  side  it  has  never  been  publicly 
disclosed. 

He  is  keenly  sensitive,  I  believe,  and  easily  hurt.  My 
own  notion  is  that  this  quick  susceptibility  to  adverse 
criticism  has  kept  him  from  thrusting  himself  forward 
and  maintaining  against  attack  the  position  to  which 
his  qualities  and  capacities  entitle  him.  He  has  not  got 
a  thick  hide  ;  he  feels  the  slings  and  darts  of  outraged 
fortune.  Other  men  less  alive  to  possible  hurt  and 
wounds  press  ahead  of  him. 

Mr.  Borah  marches  along  in  the  front  ranks  of  his 
party,  but  he  never  throws  himself  out  far  in  advance 
of  the  main  body  of  his  associates.  A  conspicuous 
instance  of  this  trait  of  his  character  was  exhibited  in 
1912.  In  that  year,  as  all  men  know,  Roosevelt  split 
the  Republican  Party  and  defeated  Taft.  Until  the 
time  of  the  actual  break  Mr.  Borah  was  allied  in  sym- 
pathy and,  indeed,  in  fact  with  the  Roosevelt  faction. 


226  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

He  marched  up  to  the  field  of  Armageddon  with  them, 
but  when  they  decided  to  go  over  Niagara  Falls  in  the 
barrel  that  George  Perkins  had  provided,  Mr.  Borah 
bade  them  a  civil  good-bye  and  bon  voyage  and  returned 
to  the  Republican  Party  which  he  had  really  never  left. 
He  was  a  progressive  but  not  a  Progressive. 

I  don't  mean  in  the  least  to  imply  that  he  was  a 
quitter,  or  that  he  played  the  part  of  a  faint-heart  or 
traitor  in  that  diverting  episode.  The  whole  maneuver 
was  sharply  and  clearly  divided  into  two  parts.  It 
began  as  a  division  in  the  Republican  Party  and  re- 
tained that  aspect  until  Taft  was  nominated.  That  was 
the  first  phase.  Then  came  the  matter  of  deciding 
whether  or  not  to  emulate  the  old  monk  of  Siberia 
whose  life  grew  drearier  and  drearier,  and  follow  T.  R. 
over  the  brink.  Of  those  who  went  over  all  of  them 
went  through  the  whirlpool  and  the  rapids,  some  of 
them  swam  ashore  and  made  their  way  painfully  back 
to  their  party,  the  others  have  never  been  heard  from 
since. 

Mr.  Borah  met  those  who  came  back  and  helped 
dress  their  wounds.  He  had  been  one  with  them  in 
spirit  until  they  made  their  free-will  offering  by  jump- 
ing. As  the  events  proved,  they  had  made  a  futile  ges- 
ture and  Mr.  Borah  had  shown  wisdom  and  saved  him- 
self a  circuitous  journey  out  of  his  party  and  in  again. 

I  recall  the  whole  adventure  because  it  is  more  illus- 
trative and  illuminative  than  any  other  incident  that 
I  know  anything  about  in  Mr.  Borah's  public  career. 


BORAH  227 

Passion  and  party  feeling  were  excited  and  inflamed  at 
the  time.  The  men  who  had  been  with  Roosevelt  and 
who  had  to  make  a  choice  were  under  a  stress  and 
strain.  They  each  acted  as  the  general  excitement 
affected  them.  They  had  a  free  choice.  Now  you  can 
either  say  of  Borah  that  he  was  faint-hearted  and 
lacked  boldness  and  daring  or  that  he  kept  his  head. 
For  myself  I  choose  the  second  alternative. 

I  know  that  he  has  courage,  for  he  has  proved  it  on 
other  occasions,  and  for  that  matter  he  proved  it  again 
when  he  did  not  become  a  Progressive.  All  the  pres- 
sure on  him  was  from  that  side. 

It  was  his  course  at  that  time  that  has  left  confusion 
in  many  minds  about  his  status  as  between  the  Right 
and  the  Left.  To-day  in  Washington  you  will  hear  him 
called  both  a  conservative  and  a  progressive.  He  seems 
to  reside  indeterminately  in  the  political  spectrum 
between  the  red  and  the  violet  rays.  Sometimes  he 
moves  over  to  the  left  as  far  as  the  orange  and  again 
to  the  right  as  far  as  the  indigo,  but  never  reaches 
either  of  the  two  extremes. 

I  think  it  is  this  unconscious  preference  for  the 
pastel  shades  instead  of  the  raw  primary  colors  that 
has,  also  in  degree,  affected  wider  public  recognition  of 
Mr.  Borah's  capacities.  Where  there  are  so  many 
things  to  engage  public  attention  and  so  much  organ- 
ized clamor,  only  the  brightest  or  noisiest  catch  the 
eye  and  ear. 

Mr.  Borah  has  so  conducted  his  share  in  public 


228  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

affairs  that  he  has  never  attached  his  name  or  fame  to 
any  of  the  admirable  proposals  that  he  has  borne  such 
a  large  part  in  making  into  law.  I  cite,  by  way  of 
proof,  the  act  for  the  direct  election  of  Senators.  That 
was  a  long,  hard  fight.  Borah  pressed  it  with  resolu- 
tion, with  courage,  with  ingenuity  and  skill  against  a 
subtle  and  strong  and  entrenched  opposition  until 
success  came.  That  was  an  excellent  public  service 
well  performed,  yet  I  venture  that  few  now  know  or 
remember  the  part  Borah  played. 

As  another  instance,  the  income  tax  law  will  serve. 
That  is  one  of  the  fairest  of  all  taxes  in  principle.  It  is 
levied  directly  and  if  the  schedules  or  brackets  are 
properly  designed  it  falls  equitably  on  all  who  pay  it. 
Mr.  Borah  bore  a  part  in  urging  the  legislation  through 
the  Senate.  In  the  debate  which  he  carried  through 
with  skill  and  learning  he  had  opposed  to  him  some  of 
the  best  minds  in  the  Senate.  That,  too,  I  suspect  is  a 
popularly  unknown  part  of  his  record. 

A  present  modern  instance  is  an  even  more  striking 
example  of  how  he  wins  races  and  others  get  the  prizes. 
Mr.  Borah  introduced  a  resolution  as  an  amendment  to 
the  naval  bill,  suggesting  or  inviting  the  President  to 
call  a  conference  of  representatives  of  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  Japan  to  consider  the  limi- 
tation and  reduction  of  naval  armaments.  It  hung  fire 
for  a  long  time.  In  several  preliminary  stages  it  was 
defeated.  The  opposition  in  the  Senate  was  strong. 
Soon  after  President  Harding  came  to  the  White 


BORAH  229 

House  definite  word  was  spread  abroad  and  brought  to 
the  Senate  that  he  did  not  wish  Mr.  Borah's  proposal 
to  pass  Congress.  He  did  not  wish  to  have  his  hand 
forced.  He  was,  in  Frank  Tinney's  phrase,  a  architect 
and  he  had  other  plans. 

Borah  hung  on  ;  he  pressed ;  he  had  a  sound  proposal. 
Public  sentiment  grew  stronger  and  stronger  in  favor  of 
it  until  one  fine  morning  the  entire  opposition  crumpled, 
dissipated,  disappeared  without  a  sight  or  sound.  Invi- 
tations were  issued  not  only  to  Great  Britain  and 
Japan,  but  to  France,  Italy,  and  China,  to  meet  in 
conference  at  Washington  to  consider  limitation  of 
armaments  and  other  cognate  matters. 

Senator  Johnson  said  of  it  all  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate:  "It  was  the  greatest  personal  triumph  that 
has  been  won  by  a  Senator  in  my  time  in  this  chamber." 
And  so  it  was ;  and  for  that  matter,  in  the  time  of 
others  who  have  been  much  longer  in  Washington  than 
the  bold  Californian, 

But  Borah,  oh !  where  was  he  ?  Lost  in  the  mists. 
Spurlos  versenkt.  Posted  missing  at  Lloyd's.  Gone 
down  with  all  hands.  Effaced.  As  the  poet  so  tersely 
said  of  Lord  Ullin  and  his  daughter,  "The  waters 
wild  went  o'er  his  child,  and  he  was  left  lamenting." 
They  didn't  even  leave  him  a  lock  of  hair  as  a  keep- 
sake. Overnight  it  became  the  Harding  plan,  the 
Harding  conference,  the  Harding  disarmament  policy, 
and  as  I  indite  this  requiem  at  River  House  on  the 
austere  coast  of  Maine,  it  even  appears  that  he  will  not 


230  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

sit  with  other  Senators  who  will  represent  the  United 
States  at  the  meeting  which  Borah  and  Borah  alone  in 
the  Senate  brought  into  existence.  They  took  the  cake 
and  credit,  too.  It  isn't  fair.  In  a  little  while  many 
will  forget,  and  others  will  never  know  that  Borah  ever 
had  any  part  or  connection  with  the  plan.  It  is  another 
one  of  the  large  number  of  things  that  something  ought 
to  be  done  about. 

But  Mr.  Borah  has  not  been  without  his  share  of 
luck.  He  had  two  narrow  squeaks  and  escaped  un- 
scathed. The  first  one  was  when  he  was  "mentioned" 
for  Vice- President  on  the  ticket  with  Mr.  Taft.  There 
was  considerable  talk  about  this  at  one  time,  but 
nothing  came  of  it.  That,  as  it  proved,  was  a  piece  of 
good  luck.  The  second  threat  came  later  when  it 
appeared  for  a  time  that  Mr.  Borah  would  be  Colonel 
George  Harvey's  personally  selected  candidate  for  the 
Republican  nomination  for  the  presidency  in  1916. 
He  seemed  to  be  about  to  take  Mr.  Borah  up.  He 
circled  above  his  prospective  quarry  in  wide  swoops, 
emitting  strange  cries,  and  indicated  the  Idaho  Senator 
by  name.  It  didn't  last  long,  however,  but  it  was  3 
puzzling  performance  while  it  did  last. 

All  of  these  things,  you  will  observe,  while  they  have 
affected  Mr.  Borah's  fame,  have  not  checked  or  im- 
paired or  halted  his  career.  While  he  has  been  at- 
tached to  conspicuous  proposals  and  conspicuous 
movements,  they  have  not  made  him  as  conspicuous  as 
lesser  men  have  become  with  less  cause.  Such  of  the 


BORAH  231 

fruits  of  victory  as  are  included  under  the  category  of 
fame,  notoriety,  publicity,  a  widespread  recognition  of 
work  well  done,  have  not  been  his.  While  he  has 
missed  great  public  fame  he  has  achieved  a  reputation. 
He  has  never  been  "placed,"  but  that  is  because  he  has 
never  placed  himself. 

In  Washington,  where  he  has  come  to  be  a  distinct 
figure  and  where  he  is  under  closer  observation  than  he 
receives  from  the  country  at  large,  he  is  described  by  a 
number  of  adjectives.  Solid  is  one  of  them,  conserva- 
tive another,  independent  a  third  ;  to  many  others  he  is 
primarily  a  progressive,  and  every  one  agrees  that  he 
is  quiet,  patient,  able,  and  of  a  serene  temper.  He  is 
in  the  first  flight  among  the  Senators  and  always  will 
be,  whatever  the  quality  of  the  membership  in  that 
chamber. 

He  has  not  in  him  the  making  of  a  great  popular 
leader,  because  he  lacks  a  certain  daring,  a  certain 
imaginative  quality  that  inhibits  him  in  time  of  crisis 
from  taking  his  political  life  in  his  hands  and  jumping 
off  into  the  void  with  his  eyes  open.  He  always  keeps 
one  foot  on  the  ground.  He  is  not  the  man  to  head  a 
forlorn  hope,  but  neither  is  he  a  man  to  be  trifled  with. 
He  makes  no  bones  about  opposing  President  Harding 
whenever  he  sees  fit,  and  that  is  something  that  few 
care  to  do  in  these  early  days  of  the  administration. 

In  sum  :  An  effective,  useful,  intelligent  public  serv- 
ant. The  people  who  are  disappointed  in  him  are 
those  who  expect  more  of  him  than  he  has  in  him,  and  I 


232  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

confess  he  gives  out  constantly  to  many  the  impression 
of  having  in  him  the  motive  power  for  longer  and 
higher  flights  than  he  has  yet  essayed.  Though  he  is 
fifty-six  years  old,  and  has  been  in  the  Senate  fourteen 
years,  he  still  creates  an  attitude  of  expectation  among 
those  who  have  been  his  close  observers.  They  still 
seem  to  think  of  him  as  a  man  whose  future  is  before 
him ;  as  a  public  man  whose  big  things,  whose  peak 
achievements,  are  yet  to  be  accomplished. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  as  the  policeman  in  O.  Henry's 
story  said,  but  it  is  this  feeling  of  expectation  he  suc- 
ceeds in  creating  that  makes  him  the  interesting  and 
uncertain  figure  that  he  is. 


LA  FOLLETTE:  BOB  THE  BATTLER 

MR.  LA  FOLLETTE  missed  the  train.  It  is  only  in  the 
rarest  instances  that  time,  tide,  circumstances,  the 
hour  and  the  man  keep  an  appointed  tryst  with 
Destiny.  One  or  more  of  them  is  always  late.  Affairs 
are  badly  ordered  on  this  terrestrial  sphere.  Mr. 
La  Follette's  are  a  case  in  point.  I  am  thinking  how 
different  things  might  have  been  with  him  if,  in  his 
plastic  youth,  or  even  fifteen  years  ago  when  first  he 
came  to  Washington  as  a  Senator,  he  had  come  in 
contact  with  George  Santayana  and  read  him  atten- 
tively and  understandingly.  Particularly  if  he  could 
have  read  Mr.  Santayana's  paper  on  English  Liberty 
in  America,  which  had  not  been  written  at  that  time. 
He  could  have  learned  things  about  us  that  he  has 
never  discerned  or  divined  that  would  have  been 
helpful  to  him  in  the  career  he  laid  out  for  himself, 
and  which  he  has  truncated  without  exactly  knowing 
how  he  did  it. 

For  Mr.  La  Follette  and  his  partisans  in  particular, 
and  for  the  general  enlightenment  and  in  the  public 
interest,  I  propose  here  and  now  to  do  Mr.  Santayana 
the  injustice  of  isolating  some  snippets  from  his  pene- 
trating analysis.  First  he  says  that  the  thing  in  us 
that  makes  us  what  we  are  is  the  spirit  of  free  coopera- 
tion, and  that  the  root  of  it  is  free  individuality. 

"That   most   parliamentary   measures   should    be 


234  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

trivial  or  technical  and  really  devised  and  debated 
only  in  government  offices,  and  that  government  in 
America  should  so  long  have  been  carried  on  in  the 
shade,  by  persons  of  no  name  or  dignity,  is  no  anomaly. 
On  the  contrary,  like  the  good  fortune  of  those  who 
never  hear  of  the  police,  it  is  a  sign  that  cooperative 
liberty  is  working  well  and  rendering  overt  govern- 
ment unnecessary." 

"  It  makes  impossible  the  sort  of  liberty  for  which 
the  Spartans  died  at  Thermopylae,  or  the  Christian 
martyrs  in  the  arena,  or  the  Protestant  reformers  at 
the  stake  ;  for  these  people  all  died  because  they  would 
not  cooperate,  because  they  were  not  plastic  and 
would  never  consent  to  live  the  life  dear  or  at  least 
customary  to  other  men.  They  insisted  on  being 
utterly  different  and  independent  and  inflexible  in 
their  chosen  systems..  . ." 

"Liberty  for  all  pensive  or  rabid  apostles  of  liberty, 
meant  liberty  for  themselves  to  be  just  so,  and  to 
remain  just  so  forever,  together  with  the  most  vehe- 
ment defiance  of  anybody  who  might  ask  them,  for 
the  sake  of  harmony,  to  be  a  little  different.  They 
summoned  every  man  to  become  free  in  exactly  their 
own  fashion,  or  have  his  head  cut  off." 

"To  cooperate  with  anybody  seems  to  these 
esprits  forts  contamination,  so  sensitive  are  they  to  any 
deviation  from  the  true  north  which  their  compass 
might  suffer  through  the  neighborhood  of  any  human 
magnet." 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Ewing 

SENATOR  ROBERT  M.  LA  FOLLETTE 


LA  FOLLETTE  235 

All  this  is  but  to  say  that  Mr.  La  Follette  is  lacking 
in  a  certain  sweet  reasonableness ;  that  he  has  no 
facility  for  mutual  easements  and  accommodations; 
that  he  rubs  the  fur  on  the  national  hide  the  wrong 
way.  When  he  came  to  the  Senate  in  1905  he  seemed 
at  the  threshold  of  his  larger  career.  His  work  in  Wis- 
consin had  made  him  a  national  figure.  I  remember 
there  was  considerable  trepidation  in  what  are 
euphemistically  known  as  the  highest  quarters  as  Mr. 
La  Follette  began  his  progress  toward  Washington. 
There  was  a  fear  that  he  might  take  the  center  of  the 
stage ;  that  he  might  overshadow  and,  perhaps,  even 
displace  other  then  dominant  figures  in  the  national 
scene.  It  proved  to  be  a  baseless  apprehension.  The 
step  forward  was  the  beginning  of  the  eclipse. 

If  Mr.  La  Follette  had  had  a  sense  of  proportion, 
discrimination,  detachment  of  view,  and  even  a  tithe 
of  Santayana's  close  and  keen  understanding  of  the 
national  genius,  there  might  have  been  another  story 
to  tell  of  him.  He  tried  to  hustle  us  into  salvation,  not 
subject  to  amendment  or  compromise.  It  just  couldn't 
be  done.  Mr.  La  Follette  could  no  more  accommodate 
himself  to  becoming  one  of  a  board  of  directors  in  a 
joint  stock  limited  liability  company  than  could  Peter 
the  Hermit. 

And  yet  if  I  had  to  make  a  list  of  the  foremost  public 
men  of  this  generation,  of  men  who  have  done  con- 
structive work  in  the  public  interest  and  for  the  public 
good,  I  should  put  Mr.  La  Follette's  name  well  up  on 


236  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

the  roster.  I  should  do  it  unhesitatingly.  Anybody 
would.  His  work  in  Wisconsin  alone  would  entitle 
him  to  such  a  place. 

He  found  the  State  in  the  hands  of  a  sordid  group  of 
political  reactionaries,  "highbinders,"  as  they  used  to 
be  called,  entrenched  at  home,  entrenched  at  Wash- 
ington, powerful  in  national  politics,  and  devoted  his 
life  to  the  restoration  of  the  State  to  democracy,  to 
political  cleanliness.  He  did  it.  His  State  programme 
was  one  worthy  of  a  great  and  able  man.  It  was  effec- 
tive. It  was  intelligent.  It  was  comprehensive.  It  was 
thorough  and  constructive.  He  had  good  men  en- 
listed with  him,  men  of  backbone  and  force  and  imagi- 
nation, men  who  were  not  afraid.  He  brought  into  the 
service  of  the  State  a  group  of  trained  economists. 
He  made  the  State  University  the  thinking  machine 
of  the  State  in  his  reforms. 

In  no  other  State  government  that  I  know  about 
have  such  men  as  La  Follette  found  been  brought  into 
public  service.  It  was  indeed  a  new  crowd.  It  was 
largely  made  up  of  men  never  in  politics,  and  who  under 
other  circumstances  would  never  have  been  thought 
of  for  political  office.  They  were  precisely  and  literally 
and  actually  public  servants.  And  mighty  good  ones 
they  proved  to  be,  too.  But  they  never  got  into  politics. 
The  men  I  have  in  mind  were  admirable  public  serv- 
ants, but  they  never  became  La  Follette 's  political 
lieutenants.  Frailer  men  got  those  jobs. 

There  is  no  political  career  in  the  United  States  that 


LA  FOLLETTE  237 

will  stand  closer  and  more  critical  and  searching  ap- 
praisal than  this  State  work  of  Mr.  La  Toilette's. 
That  work  was  done  between  1880  and  1905.  He  was 
about  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  years  old  when  he 
began  it.  He  was  at  the  top  of  his  stride  when  he  came 
to  Washington.  In  this  summary  I  do  not  take  into 
account  the  three  terms  that  he  spent  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  before  his  three  terms  as  Governor  of 
Wisconsin.  That  was  an  interlude,  or,  perhaps  more 
precisely,  a  prelude. 

In  the  national  field  Mr.  La  Follette  has  not  been 
successful.  He  has  not  won  a  following.  He  is  to-day 
in  the  Senate  an  isolated  figure.  At  one  time  a  poten- 
tial and  possible  candidate  for  the  presidency,  he  has 
not  to-day  a  vestige  of  a  chance  for  that  great  prize. 
There  is  no  faint  promise  that  his  name  will  ever  be 
considered  again.  His  self-thwarting  is  one  of  the 
tragedies  of  politics.  To  overturn  a  great  evil  oligarchy 
in  Wisconsin  was  a  work  of  immense  difficulty.  It 
tried  his  capacities  and  his  nervous  system  to  their 
utmost.  The  national  field  was  too  much  for  him.  He 
failed  because  of  several  things.  A  part  of  the  trouble 
lay  in  the  inherent  enormousness  of  the  job.  A  part  of 
it  lay  in  his  inability  to  understand  the  spirit  of  free 
cooperation  among  us  that  I  have  already  invoked  the 
aid  of  Mr.  Santayana  to  indicate.  A  part  of  it  lay  in 
his  personality. 

He  has  the  fatal  defect  in  a  reformer  of  making 
virtue  odious,  or,  at  any  rate,  tiresome  and  a  bore. 


238  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

But  he  is  a  single-minded,  first-class  fighter.  He  is  no 
carpet  knight.  No  matter  how  dark  the  prospects,  or 
how  dubious  the  outcome,  he  goes  in  and  fights. 
Defeat  does  not  daunt  him.  He  does  not  compromise 
for  success.  One  of  his  weaknesses  lies  in  the  fact  that 
he  will  not  compromise  when  he  could  do  so  without 
sacrifice  of  principle.  He  has  an  intrepidity  of  spirit 
which  is  unequaled  in  any  man  in  public  life  I  have 
ever  known.  Like  Ruggles's  friend,  Cousin  Egbert, 
he  would  fight  a  rattlesnake,  but  he  would  never  give 
the  snake  the  first  two  bites.  This  intrepidity  never 
deserts  him.  It  is  as  much  to  the  fore  in  a  sound  course 
as  in  an  unsound  one. 

I  can  very  well  believe  what  I  have  been  told  by 
men  who  have  been  his  close  associates,  that  there  is 
no  more  charming  and  agreeable  personality  than  La 
Follette  when  one  is  working  with  him  and  accepting 
his  leadership  not  only  in  action,  but  in  thought.  If 
Mr.  La  Follette  should  chance  to  see  this  sentence,  I 
believe  he  will  accuse  me  of  doing  him  a  rank  and 
bitter  injustice,  but  I  think  that  in  his  relations  with 
his  co-workers  he  always  distrusts  any  one  over  whom 
he  cannot  mentally  tyrannize.  That  has  always  caused 
him  trouble.  I  do  not  know  that  he  is  wholly  to  blame, 
yet  at  bottom  it  is  his  fault,  after  all. 

He  has  been  "betrayed"  or  "deserted"  (one  some- 
how seems  to  fall  naturally  to  these  lurid  terms  in 
saying  anything  about  Mr.  La  Follette)  more  than 
once  by  his  lieutenants.  The  interests  opposed  to  him 


LA  FOLLETTE  239 

made  a  practice  of  tempting  away  from  him  one  aide 
after  another.  This  enlarged  and  inflamed  Mr.  La 
Toilette's  capacity  for  suspicion,  made  him  quick  to 
distrust,  slow  to  give  his  confidence.  He  has  had  some 
bitter  experiences.  He  takes  things  hard,  anyhow. 
These  "betrayals"  have  made  him  mordant.  The 
very  look  out  of  his  eye  is  one  of  suspicion.  You  are 
acutely  aware  that  he  is  on  his  guard,  wary,  deter- 
mined not  to  be  trapped  or  caught  unawares.  His 
defenses  are  always  up.  This  is  an  unhappy  state  of 
mind  to  have  to  sustain.  It  does  not  make  for  ease  or 
breadth  or  contentment  or  a  clear,  unhampered  out- 
look on  the  affairs  about  one. 

•  Mr.  La  Follette  has  not  been  without  fault  in  bring- 
ing about  these  conditions.  It  was  difficult  or  impossi- 
ble for  really  strong  and  able  men,  forceful  personali- 
ties who  could  stand  on  their  own  feet,  to  subordinate 
themselves  as  completely  as  they  had  to  do  while 
working  in  close  association  with  the  Wisconsin  leader. 
This  forced  him  to  elevate  to  places  of  trust  in  his 
organization  one  weak  man  after  another,  and  they 
were  induced  by  one  means  and  another  to  leave  him 
in  the  lurch.  That  he  should  have  weak  men  about 
him  and  that  they  should  fail  him  is  La  Toilette's  one 
great  weakness  as  a  political  leader.  After  all  it  was 
the  La  Follette  programme  they  were  seduced  from, 
not  theirs.  La  Follette  does  not  permit  the  men  closely 
about  him  to  have  programmes  of  their  own,  nor  does 
he  permit  them  to  have  a  sense  of  ownership  as  a  joint 


240  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

and  common  proprietor  in  his  programme.  He  could 
not. 

Persons  who  have  been  temporarily  in  Mr.  La 
Toilette's  confidence  I  know  have  heard  him  speak  of 
some  of  the  most  sincere  men  in  public  life  as  false  to 
the  people.  He  genuinely  believed  what  he  said.  It 
was  because  they  did  not  agree  wholly  with  him  in 
some  matter  of  public  concern  then  uppermost  for 
discussion  and  settlement.  This  intolerance  of  spirit 
and  quickness  to  suspect  lost  him  one  good  collaborator 
after  another.  It  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  his  lack  of 
success  in  the  national  field.  We  are  an  essentially 
kindly,  tolerant  people  and  for  the  most  part  work  out 
our  problems  by  rule  of  thumb.  The  general  instinct 
is  "to  pull  through  somehow  by  mutual  adaptation, 
and  by  seizing  on  the  readiest  practical  measures  and 
working  compromises.  Each  man  joins  in  and  gives 
a  helping  hand,  without  a  preconceived  hand  or  a 
prior  motive.  Even  the  leader,  when  he  is  a  natural 
leader  and  not  a  professional,  has  nothing  up  his  sleeve 
to  force  on  the  rest,  in  their  obvious  good-will  and 
mental  blankness."  (That,  you  will  perceive,  is  Mr. 
Santayana  again.)  That  is  what  Mr.  La  Follette  does 
not  understand.  In  his  spirit  he  is  a  hermit,  and  — 
dare  I  say  it  with  any  hope  of  being  understood  by  the 
purists  —  a  crab. 

I  do  not  know  what  his  fundamental  political  views 
are.  To  my  knowledge  he  has  never  announced  any- 
thing but  political  programmes  which  he  hoped  to 


LA  FOLLETTE  241 

have  comprehended  in  the  platforms  of  the  Republican 
Party. 

I  do  not  think  the  fault  lies  in  him  or  his  work  that 
the  forces  he  fought  in  Wisconsin  gained  control  of 
the  State  when  he  came  to  Washington.  There  had  to 
be,  we  being  what  we  are,  a  descent  from  the  exalta- 
tion he  had  largely  produced.  But  it  is  due  and  directly 
chargeable  to  his  tyrannical  and  suspicious  nature, 
that  when  he  went  away  from  Wisconsin  there  was  no 
one  left  behind  to  keep  the  fight  going  successfully. 
Yet  the  whole  gain  was  not  lost.  Some  of  the  good 
work  held,  La  Follette  has  elevated  the  basis  on  which 
political  action  must  take  place  in  Wisconsin.  It  bids 
fair  to  last  long  after  his  time. 

And  this  is  to  be  said  with  emphasis :  La  Follette  is 
absolutely  and  entirely  unselfish  so  far  as  seeking  to 
reap  personal  profit  from  his  public  service  is  con- 
cerned. He  is  not  in  public  office  for  private  pelf.  He 
is  even  fanatically  on  the  level.  And  finally  he  is  a 
man  of  the  most  prodigious  industry.  Every  night  his 
light  is  going  until  a  late  hour.  He  is  constant  in  his 
attendance  at  the  Capitol.  He  does  not  participate 
largely  or  frequently  in  the  running  discussion  of  the 
routine  legislative  grist  in  the  Senate.  He  specializes 
in  subjects  that  interest  him  and  then  makes  a  long 
speech  that  may  run  over  two  or  three,  or,  perhaps, 
even  four  days'  sessions  of  the  Senate.  He  has  just 
made  such  a  speech  this  summer  (1921)  on  British 
influence  in  or  on  the  Shipping  Board.  It  showed  an 


242  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

immense  amount  of  tedious  labor.  It  was  all  illustrated 
with  diagrams  and  charts  such  as  he  usually  employs, 
but  to  what  end  ?  It  didn't  create  a  ripple.  If  it  was 
reported  in  the  newspapers,  I  didn't  see  it. 

What  Mr.  La  Follette  says  does  not  command  wide 
popular  attention.  That  is  his  sorry  misfortune.  Once 
he  did  command  attention ;  he  had  that  power.  He 
has  lost  it.  So  that  his  present  estate  is  doubly  his 
sorry  misfortune.  He  is  a  sincere  man,  an  honest  man, 
a  man  who  seeks  fervently  to  do  the  right  thing,  but 
he  pitches  his  note  too  high.  It  is  shrill.  A  little  more 
kindliness,  a  little  more  tolerance,  and  then  again  a 
little  more  kindliness  would  have  served  him  well. 
It's  a  pity,  for  he  might  have  been  a  great  force  for 
good  if  he  had  had  more  understanding.  Now  he  seems 
condemned  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  with  the 
eleven  obstinate  jurymen.  It's  too  bad. 


LEWIS:  LILAC  AND  LILACS 

Being  impressions  and  reflections  upon  observing  James 
Hamilton  Lewis,  one  time  a  Senator  from  Illinois,  in 
transit  to  the  Capitol  in  an  F  Street  car  at  Washington 

A  LAVENDER  shirt,  a  white-satin  tie,  and  a  jade  stick- 
pin ;  washable  white  chamois  gloves ;  whiskers  daintily 
combed,  and  hair  that  needed  both  brushing  and 
cutting  about  the  ears;  a  silk  hat;  a  mottled-red  cane 
with  a  silver  crook;  large,  crusted-gold  cuff-buttons 
shaped  like  dumb-bells;  soft,  reversed  cuffs  pulled 
well  down  over  the  hands;  fawn-colored  spats;  light 
black-and-white-checked  overcoat,  with  a  blue-bor- 
dered handkerchief  showing  from  an  outside  breast- 
pocket; a  broad,  black  eyeglass  cord  falling  negligently 
across  the  shirt-front;  the  fixed  and  "dressy"  posture 
of  a  Leyendecker  figure  in  a  collar  advertisement;  an 
acute  consciousness  of  self  and  of  the  interest  and 
furtive  stares  of  the  other  passengers  in  the  car 


SIMS:  A  FIRST-CLASS  SAILOR  MAN 

I  THINK  I  have  never  known  any  man  who  walks  about 
the  world  so  gayly  and  so  unafraid  as  Rear  Admiral 
William  Sowden  Sims.  It  seems  incredible  that  he 
used  to  wear  side  whiskers ;  funny  little  chinchilla 
mudguards  shaped  like  the  breakfast  rolls  that  the 
French  call  brioches.  They  ran  down  in  front  of  his  ears 
in  the  cleft  between  the  under  side  of  his  jawbone  and 
his  neck  and  were  closely  trimmed  as  a  privet  hedge. 

They  were  a  lapse  of  his  youth,  of  the  period  in  the 
late  seventies,  of  the  time  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes, 
when  hair  and  the  human  face  were  in  the  last  phase  of 
their  great  battle  to  determine  which  should  survive. 
When  the  armistice  came  and  the  face  emerged  trium- 
phant, Admiral  Sims  abandoned  his  fancy  hedge  and 
adopted  the  standardized  regulation :  Beards,  naval 
officers  for  the  use  of,  Mark  One.  He  has  stood  fast  by 
it,  and  made  it  the  regulation  issue. 

This  partiality  for  whiskers  is  an  inherited  trait. 
The  Admiral's  father  wore  "Admiral  Walkers,"  a 
long,  flowing,  luxuriant  growth  of  wild  and  tangled 
clematis  on  either  side  of  a  clean-shaven  chin.  One  can 
only  say  it  was  the  fashion  in  those  days,  not  a  blot 
on  the  'scutcheon,  and  pass  quickly  on  to  other  and 
present  aspects  of  our  foremost  naval  man. 

For  that,  of  course,  is  precisely  what  he  is,  the  first 
figure  in  the  navy,  the  ablest  officer  of  our  generation 


Copyright  by  Harris  If  Swing 

REAR-ADMIRAL  WILLIAM  S.  SIMS 


SIMS  245 

in  the  sea  establishment.  If  there  is  a  more  competent 
officer  on  the  active  list  of  the  navy,  he  has  not  made 
himself  known  and  his  influence  felt.  And  I  think  he 
has  come  to  his  present  estate  by  being  unafraid. 

Fear,  as  everybody  ought  to  know,  is  the  greatest 
deterrent  to  action,  to  enterprise,  to  accomplishment. 
It  inhibits.  It  makes  commonplace  men.  It  reduces  to 
a  dull  level.  It  makes  for  stagnation.  It  is  a  force  for 
evil.  Fearful  men,  timorous  men  run  in  the  ruck.  They 
may  have  good  qualities,  but  they  aren't  the  men  who 
shove  things  along. 

I  do  not  seek  to  decry  or  reflect  upon  either  the  con- 
duct or  the  traditions  and  the  spirit  of  the  army  and 
the  navy  when  I  say  that  prolonged  service  in  either 
branch  tends  to  make  officers,  I  do  not  say  fearful  and 
timorous,  but  circumspect  —  very,  very  careful  and 
circumspect.  Not  in  action,  mind  you,  not  toward  any 
foe  or  enemy  they  might  be  sent  against,  but  toward 
their  superiors  in  their  own  service,  toward  rank, 
toward  and  about  the  evils  of  red  tape  and  petty  regu- 
lations in  which  they  are  enmeshed. 

It  is  a  situation  and  a  condition  that  breeds  the 
habit  of  avoidance  of  responsibility.  It  makes  the 
game  of  "passing  the  buck"  what  it  has  become.  The 
man  who  can  most  adroitly  "pass  the  buck"  is  the  man 
with  the  cleanest  record.  It  means  avoiding  the  hard 
places  in  the  road.  It  means  safety  first  to  the  nth 
power :  a  good  rule  of  the  road,  but  not  necessarily  a 
good  rule  of  life.  The  man  who  keeps  both  feet  on  the 


246  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

ground  and  never  takes  a  chance  may  be  a  good  insur- 
ance risk,  but  he  does  not  get  much  travel,  speed,  or 
action.  •' 

Now  Admiral  Sims,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  of  him 
goes,  has  never  been  one  of  the  buck-passers.  When  he 
has  come  under  my  observation,  he  has  always  been 
ranging  like  an  outfielder  with  his  head  up  and  ready 
to  cry,  "  I  got  it,  I  got  it,"  when  any  one  threatened  to 
get  in  his  way.  The  "  buck,"  the  responsibility,  is  what 
he  has  sought,  - 

Like  some  of  Admiral  Sims's  close  associates  in  the 
navy,  I  do  not  take  much  stock  in  his  so-called  "indis- 
cretions." To  me  they  have  always  seemed  more  like 
maturely  deliberated  utterances.  I  do  not  think  he 
goes  off  at  half-cock.  He  knows  very  well  what  he  is 
doing.  He  exercises  when  he  sees  fit,  and  thinks  a  need 
exists,  his  quality  of  being  unafraid.  He  has  grown  in 
his  own  stature  and  in  public  esteem  through  these 
"indiscretions."  Another  thing  he  has  that  makes  for 
confidence  and  poise  and  a  quick  willingness  to  back 
his  own  play,  and  that  is,  perfect  health.  To-day  at 
sixty-three  he  is  a  better  man  physically  than  the 
average  man  of  forty-five.  He  functions  easily.  He 
keeps  in  the  pink.  That  perfect  good  health  would 
make  him  chipper  and  gay,  even  without  his  eager, 
dancing  spirit. 

Once  upon  a  time,  now  in  the  long  ago,  I  went  to  an 
East  Side  ball  in  New  York.  Word  had  come  to  my 
newspaper  office  that  there  might  be  trouble  there.  It 


SIMS  247 

turned  out  to  be  a  decorous  and  sedate  party  until  a 
lad  took  his  little  flat  derby  hat,  shaped  precisely 
like  the  half  of  a  Rocky  Ford  melon,  and  shied  it  out 
into  the  middle  of  the  floor.  "Hooray  for  hell,"  he 
said.  Then  it  began.  I  think  Admiral  Sims  has  a  little 
something  of  that  spirit  in  him.  There  is  a  certain 
gayety  and  joyousness  of  spirit  about  him  that  likes  a 
shindy.  It  is  a  quality  the  Irish  have.  It  made  Donny- 
brook  Fair  famous.  Admiral  Sims  has  enjoyed  his 
controversies.  He  has  carried  them  on  in  a  spirit  of 
high  good  humor.  They  have  stimulated  him.  He  is 
always  a  gay  companion  when  he  is  under  fire  and 
engaged  in  a  cut  and  thrust  enterprise. 

In  sharp  contrast  with  this  carefree  aspect  of  his 
personality  is  his  methodicalness  of  method.  He  has 
a  remarkably  retentive  memory,  really  one  of  these 
of -course- 1  -place  -  you  -  Mr.  -  Addison  -  Sims  -  of  -  Seattle 
minds.  But  he  does  not  depend  on  this  memory  alone. 
He  reenforces  and  documents  it.  His  books,  papers, 
records,  maps,  etc.,  are  kept  in  a  precisely  ordered, 
cross-indexed  filing  system  with  a  place  for  everything 
and  everything  in  its  place.  One  of  his  aides  once  told 
me: 

"  I  recall  one  day  in  Newport  when  the  Admiral  was 
laid  up  in  bed  with  a  slight  cold  (I  never  knew  him  to 
have  anything  more  serious  than  this)  receiving  a  note 
from  him  asking  me  to  send  him  a  certain  paper  that 
was  in  his  office.  The  memo  which  I  received  from  him 
was  a  sketch  of  his  office  bookcase  with  all  of  the  books 


248  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

on  the  two  upper  shelves  indicated  by  name  and  the 
location  of  the  paper  he  wanted  indicated  with  refer- 
ence to  one  of  these  books.  I  found  the  paper  exactly 
where  he  said  it  was  and  sent  it  to  him  forthwith. 
That  bookcase,  like  everything  else  he  has  ever  seen, 
was  photographed  on  his  mind  and  the  negative  filed 
away  for  future  reference." 

This  is  not  to  say  that  Admiral  Sims  is  a  man  who 
loves  details  and  buries  himself  in  them.  He  knows 
how  to  keep  subordinates  busy,  and  to  distribute  work 
as  well  as  any  man  I  have  ever  known.  I  only  seek  to 
indicate  that  he  can  be  carefree  and  joyous  when  he  is 
in  a  row  because  he  has  carefully  and  thoroughly  pre- 
pared his  position  before  he  begins  to  fight ;  to  support 
my  contention  that  he  does  not  go  off  at  half-cock. 

He  does  not  play  for  his  own  hand,  either,  his  own 
personal,  selfish  reward,  aggrandizement,  and  prefer- 
ment. He  is  bound  up  in  the  navy.  He  has  been  honest 
with  himself  and  the  country  he  serves  so  conspicu- 
ously. I  frankly  confess  that  I  was  not  wholly  and  per- 
fectly sure  of  his  disinterestedness  until  the  World  War. 
In  some  of  his  other  enterprises  that  brought  him  into 
the  public  eye  and  notice  there  was  a  possibility  that  a 
yearning  for  personal  acclaim  and  a  desire  to  lift  him- 
self to  become  a  figure  in  the  world  might  have  been 
one  of  his  motives.  There  were  never  lacking  persons 
to  whisper  this  charge. 

But  the  great  war  was  the  searching  test.  Admiral 
Sims  could  have  so  managed  his  affairs  and  the  affairs 


SIMS  249 

of  the  navy  abroad,  so  conducted  himself  toward  the 
Navy  Department  and  the  powers  at  home  in  Wash- 
ington, could  have  been  so  smooth,  so  pliant,  so  dis- 
creet, so  accommodating  and  complaisant,  so  adroit  in 
taking  the  easiest  way,  that  he  might  have  returned 
full  of  honors  —  which  he  would  not  have  deserved.  I 
think  there  is  no  doubt  he  could  have  so  contrived  his 
business  that  he  would  have  been  made  a  full  Admiral 
for  life  with  the  thanks  of  Congress,  and  mayhap  a 
sword  or  some  additional  token.  But  he  was  never 
tempted  to  advance  his  personal  interests  at  the  ex- 
rjense  of  the  public  interest  or  an  efficient  prosecution 
of  the  war  to  an  early  and  unimpeded  conclusion.  He 
might  have  taken  to  the  water  and  paraded  himself 
before  a  gaping  continent  had  he  so  chosen,  and  only  a 
handful  of  people  in  all  the  world  would  have  known 
that  he  was  play-acting.  To  the  others  he  would  have 
been  a  hero. 

Instead,  as  was  his  duty  and  obligation,  he  kept  a 
careful,  orderly  record  of  all  that  was  done  and  all 
that  was  not  done  that  affected  our  participation  in  the 
war  at  sea.  Then  when  the  war  ended  he  came  home 
and  had  it  out  with  Mr.  Josephus  Daniels  and  the 
Navy  Department.  He  submitted  a  piece  of  construc- 
tive, documented,  supported,  and  attested  criticism  of 
naval  administration.  He  pressed  it  boldly  and  fear- 
lessly. He  forced  a  controversy.  He  got  a  Senate  in- 
vestigation and  the  whole  naval  conduct  of  the  war 
thoroughly  aired  and  investigated.  He  was  sustained 


250  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

in  his  contentions  and  his  criticisms.  It  was  a  public 
service.  It  was  not  the  first  nor  the  second  time  he  had 
stood  up  against  the  Navy  Department  and  won.  It 
was  the  third  time. 

In  1901,  after  trying  in  vain  over  a  long  period 
through  official  channels  to  get  action  and  remedy, 
Admiral  Sims  wrote  directly  to  President  Roosevelt 
over  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department  and  charged 
that  the  navy  couldn't  shoot  for  beans.  He  proved 
it  by  the  target  practice  records.  It  was  a  disillusion- 
ing and  disconcerting  revelation.  It  raised  a  rumpus. 
Roosevelt  brought  Sims  home  from  China  and  put 
him  in  charge  of  the  navy's  target  practice. 

"Do  exactly  as  he  says  for  eighteen  months,"  said 
Roosevelt.  "If  he  does  not  accomplish  something  in 
that  time,  fire  him." 

Sims  was  inspector  of  target  practice  for  six  and  one- 
half  years,  until  our  naval  gunners  became  the  best 
shots  in  the  world.  Whether  they  have  retained  that 
eminence,  I  do  not  know.  There  was  some  good  shoot- 
ing in  the  North  Sea  a  little  while  ago  in  which  we  did 
not  participate.  But  if  we  are  not  still  the  best  naval 
gunners  in  the  world,  we  have  not  fallen  back  to  the 
humiliating  inefficiency  that  was  ours  prior  to  Sims's 
criticism.  That  was  a  piece  of  effective  constructive 
criticism  in  naval  gunnery. 

His  second  notable  encounter  with  the  Navy  De- 
partment grew  out  of  his  first.  He  brought  about  a 
radical  change  and  improvement  in  naval  construction, 


SIMS  251 

Roosevelt  helped  him  in  this,  too.  From  1900  to  1907 
Sims  constantly  poured  into  the  Department  a  flood 
of  reports  in  which  he  repeatedly  charged  gross  errors 
of  construction  in  our  fighting  ships.  They  weren't 
properly  protected,  they  weren't  properly  designed, 
there  was  virtually  nothing  about  them  that  was  not 
wrong  ;  they  were  armored  under  water  but  not  above, 
the  guns  lay  so  low  that  in  a  sea  they  were  awash ; 
the  gun  apertures  in  the  turret  were  too  large  and 
offered  no  protection  to  the  gun  crews,  the  magazines 
were  exposed  and  badly  placed. 

"The  Kentucky  is  not  a  battleship,  at  all.  She  is  the 
worst  crime  in  naval  construction  ever  perpetrated  by 
the  white  race,"  was  one  descriptive  comment. 

By  the  beginning  of  1908  these  charges  and  asser- 
tions were  appearing  in  public  print.  Sims  was  threat- 
ened with  court-martial.  Secretary  Metcalfe,  who 
didn't  know  or  even  suspect  that  President  Roosevelt 
was  privy  to  all  that  was  going  on,  wrote  Sims  a  for- 
midable letter.  But  Roosevelt  quietly  squelched  all 
that.  The  present  design  and  construction  of  Ameri- 
can battleships  dates  from  those  criticisms  and  that 
issue  forced  by  Sims. 

Twice  it  was  thought  the  part  of  "discretion"  by 
the  President  or  the  Navy  Department  to  administer 
Pickwickian  reprimands  to  Admiral  Sims  for  his  "in- 
discretions." At  the  Guildhall  in  London  in  1910  he 
said:  "If  the  time  ever  comes  when  Great  Britain  is 
menaced  by  a  European  coalition  she  can  count  upon 


252  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

every  ship,  every  dollar,  and  every  drop  of  blood  of  her 
kindred  beyond  the  sea."  Of  course,  this  was  a  great 
"indiscretion,"  doubly  so  because  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  true.  Sims  was  reprimanded,  and  then  when  his 
prophecy  came  true  was  dispatched  to  London  to  give 
the  aid  he  had  promised  ;  that  he  had  stepped  outside 
his  jurisdiction  to  promise. 

His  latest  "indiscretion"  was  a  frank  public  expres- 
sion of  his  views  about  a  faction  or  an  element  of  the 
Irish  people.  It  inevitably  caused  a  commotion  and 
Sims  was  duly  reprimanded  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  —  and  then  went  across  the  street  and  spent  a 
pleasant  social  hour  by  invitation  with  the  Command- 
er-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  The  next  three  months  he  spent  in 
endeavoring  to  answer  all  the  letters,  telegrams,  and 
messages  of  warm  commendation  he  received.  The 
flood  of  these  came  to  be  so  great  that  he  had  to  have 
a  form  letter  of  reply  printed. 

Sims  is  a  keen  professional.  The  navy  is  his  be  all 
and  end  all.  He  thinks  ahead.  He  tries  to  peer  into 
the  future.  He  has  a  clear  professional  vision  and  a 
working  imagination.  He  has  never  become  a  "shell- 
back" in  the  navy. 

In  the  present  rivalry  between  the  surface  craft  and 
the  aircraft  at  sea  his  mind  is  veering  toward  the  air- 
craft as  something  new  and  full  of  undeveloped  possi- 
bilities. He  has  been  urgent  before  committees  of 
Congress  in  asking  for  airplane  carriers,  These  car- 


SIMS  253 

riers  may  prove  to  be  the  capital  ship  of  the  immedi- 
ate and  imminent  future.  This  eager,  almost  boyish, 
quality  of  his  mind  that  makes  him  quick  to  receive 
new  ideas,  new  things,  is  a  thing  that  makes  him  lik- 
able as  a  companion. 

Young  officers  in  the  navy  are  his  warmest  and  most 
enthusiastic  admirers.  One  of  them  told  me:  "There 
has  always  been  a  team  whenever  we  were  at  sea  with 
Admiral  Sims  as  the  captain,  elected  to  this  position 
by  the  team  because  he  has  always  been  the  best  mem- 
ber on  it.  His  discipline  has  always  been  a  discipline 
of  appreciation  rather  than  a  discipline  of  fear." 

A  fine,  gay,  upstanding  sailor  man.  That  he  is  un- 
afraid is  the  thing  to  know  and  remember  about  him. 


PERSHING:  BEAU  SABREUR;  1921  MODEL 

WE  are  adjured  to  laugh  where  we  must,  be  candid 
where  we  can,  but  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  to  man. 
The  sentiment,  as,  of  course,  you  know,  is  Alexander 
Pope's.  It  seems  to  me  admirable.  Honesty  is  my 
policy.  Frankness  is  my  besetting  sin. 

So  much  by  way  of  preface  to  my  confession  that  I 
never  even  saw  General  Pershing  until  the  day  he  drove 
from  the  Union  Station  to  his  hotel  in  Washington 
months  after  the  armistice.  I  am  one  of  perhaps  a  mil- 
lion of  the  expeditionary  force  who  never  laid  eyes  on 
General  Pershing  in  France.  In  my  particular  case  it 
was  not  his  fault,  but  mine,  that  we  never  met.  I 
dodged  him.  This  was  not  rudeness  on  my  part,  but 
fear,  a  sentiment  toward  our  chieftain  that  I  found 
myself  sharing  with  thousands.  My  own  particular  fear, 
which  also  was  shared,  was  that  if  the  great  man  ever 
came  upon  me  I  would  be  harshly  and  severely  chided 
about  the  details  of  my  uniform,  and  perhaps  sent 
home  for  not  being  dressed  according  to  regulations. 

Two  things  I  quickly  discovered  as  I  approached  the 
zone  of  the  armies  in  my  new  capacity  as  a  reserve 
officer.  One  was  that  it  was  a  sign  of  bad  luck  to  cross 
the  path  of  the  General,  or  as  he  was  commonly  called 
behind  his  back,  the  Old  Man.  The  other  was  that  it 
made  a  lot  of  difference  how  you  were  dressed.  These 
factors  of  warfare  as  they  oppressed  or  concerned 


Copyright  by  Underwood  If  I'nderu-ood 
BEFORE 


WHAT  THE  WORLD  WAR  DID  FOR  GENERAL  PERSHING 


PERSHING  255 

the  individual  were  inseparably  entwined.  One  hinged 
upon  and  was  a  part  of  the  other.  Fear  of,  or  thought 
about  the  foe,  was  a  minor  consideration  unless  and 
until  one  immediately  confronted  him. 

It  was  borne  in  upon  one  that  this  was  not  only  a 
siege  war,  and  a  war  of  position,  but  a  war  of  detail. 
Little  things  counted.  At  London,  and  before  I  reached 
France,  I  learned  that  General  Pershing  signed  his 
communications  to  the  War  Department  as,  "Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  American  Expeditionary  Force," 
and  that  the  replies  from  Washington  were  addressed 
to  "Commanding  General,  A.E.F."  This  difference 
in  designation  was  much  commented  upon,  and  im- 
portance attached  to  it  by  the  military  minds. 

The  Pershing  zone  of  influence  abroad  extended  to 
and  included  London.  I  bought  a  water-proof  cap 
cover  there  and  within  an  hour  a  captain  of  coast 
artillery  checked  me  with,  "That's  not  regulation." 
I  held  out  that  it  was  a  reasonable  precaution,  and  I 
thought  allowed.  It  ended  in  a  bet  of  half  a  crown  and 
an  appeal  to  the  book  of  regulations.  I  won,  but  the 
captain  gave  in  reluctantly. 

"  I  don't  believe  the  Old  Man  would  stand  for  it.  If 
I  were  you  I  wouldn't  wear  it  in  France.  It  might  get 
you  in  wrong." 

He  was  my  friend,  and  I  knew  wished  me  well.  The 
dawning  of  fear  came  here. 

The  shadow  of  General  Pershing's  interest  in  what 
the  well-dressed  soldier  is  wearing  next  fell  upon  me 


256  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

when  I  was  inducted  into  the  harness  of  the  Sam 
Browne  belt.  While  the  transport  that  took  us  across 
lay  at  the  dock  in  New  York  I  stood  on  the  upper  deck 
watching  the  troops  pour  into  the  ship.  A  young 
officer  came  aboard  with  his  men,  and  fifteen  minutes 
later  started  back  down  the  gangplank  of  the  dock. 
In  the  interval  he  had  put  on  a  Sam  Browne  belt. 
There  came  a  roar  from  his  colonel  who  stood  near  me. 
"Get  back  on  the  ship  and  take  off  that  belt.  Where 
do  you  think  you  are,  in  France  ?" 

This  hinted  at  rites  and  mysteries  that  were  beyond 
my  ken.  Henry  Ford  had  failed  in  his  effort  to  get  the 
boys  out  of  the  trenches  by  Christmas.  I  began  to 
suspect  that  getting  the  boys  into  the  trenches  before 
the  next  Christmas  would  want  a  bit  of  doing,  until  we 
were  all  taught  how  to  dress  before  we  could  fight  a 
German. 

Some  day  some  person  versed  in  the  psychology  of 
the  trivial  ought  to  make  an  exhaustive  study  of  the 
attitude  of  the  military  mind  toward  the  Sam  Browne 
belt.  I  am  concerned  here  only  with  General  Pershing's 
attitude.  He  was  for  it.  Officers  leaving  for  France 
could  not  wear  the  belt.  It  was  not  a  part  of  their 
equipment.  No  provision  was  made  for  supplying 
them.  But  when  they  touched  the  foreign  strand  they 
must  have  one.  It  was  General  Pershing's  orders,  and 
whatever  else  may  be  said  of  his  orders,  they  were 
obeyed.  He  commanded  and  everybody  knew  it  to 
the  uttermost  fringes  of  his  authority. 


PERSHING  257 

At  each  of  the  base  ports  in  France  a  supply  of  Sam 
Browne  belts  was  kept  on  hand  for  sale  to  arriving 
officers.  In  France  we  were  considered  half  naked  if  we 
did  not  wear  it  at  all  times  and  on  all  occasions.  Even 
in  the  far  rear  of  the  army  along  the  line  of  the  S.O.S. 
the  disappointed  lads  who  had  been  hung  up  in  their 
desire  to  get  to  the  front,  in  their  quiet  and  peaceful 
messes  at  dinner  wore  the  Sam  Browne.  It  was  Gen- 
eral Pershing's  orders. 

But  when  we  got  home  again  we  were  met  at  the 
dock  in  Hoboken  with  a  large  pink  printed  order  in- 
forming us  in  heavy  black  type  that  on  no  account 
must  we  leave  the  transport  wearing  Sam  Browne 
belts,  under  penalties  and  provisions  made  and  pro- 
vided. Officers  were  stationed  at  the  gangways  as  we 
came  ashore  to  see  that  the  order  was  carried  out  and 
obeyed. 

But  when  General  Pershing  came  home  there  was  no 
one  to  tell  him  to  take  his  belt  off  and  he  continued  to 
wear  it  right  along  until  he  was  made  Chief-of-Staff  of 
the  army.  Then  he  didn't  even  hesitate.  One  of  his 
very  first  orders  was  :  "On  and  after  July  15,  1921,  the 
Sam  Browne  belt  will  be  worn  at  all  times  by  all  com- 
missioned officers  outside  their  quarters  when  in 
service  coat,  and  with  the  O.D.  shirt  if  under  arms. . . . 
The  Liberty  belt  now  obtainable  from  the  Quarter- 
master Corps  is  an  authorized  form  of  the  Sam  Browne 

belt." 

General  Pershing  has  done  for  the  Sam  Browne  belt 


258  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

what  Kosciusko  and  George  Washington  and  Patrick 
Henry  did  for  liberty,  what  Lincoln  did  for  the  Union, 
what  "Babe"  Ruth  has  done  for  the  home  run  —  he 
has  attached  his  name  and  fame  to  it ;  he  has  raised  it 
to  a  high  estate  among  us.  It  is  his  great  war  souvenir. 

But  in  my  preoccupation  with  this  great  triumph  of 
army  dress  reform  I  have  drifted  away  from  other  and 
lesser  things  that  have  contributed  to  an  impression  of 
the  aspect  of  General  Pershing's  characteristics  that  I 
share  with  so  many  who  served  under  him  in  France, 
and  who  never  came  in  intimate  contact  with  him.  We 
had  neither  the  desire  nor  the  competency  to  appraise 
his  military  capacities  and  qualities.  That  wasn't  any 
of  our  business.  He  was  the  head  of  the  show,  and 
what  he  said  went,  and  we  knew  it.  What  we  were 
interested  in  and  wanted  to  know  about  were  his  quali- 
ties and  idiosyncrasies  as  they  affected  us.  We  wanted 
to  run  with  the  grain,  not  against  it.  We  learned  early 
that  he  cared  about  the  niceties  of  dress. 

I  crossed  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  bareheaded  in 
one  of  the  coldest  Januarys  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
because  of  one  of  his  orders.  He  had  forbidden  the  use 
of  campaign  hats  in  France,  and  I  knew  it,  so  I  didn't 
buy  one  when  I  started  over.  The  first  order  issued  on 
the  transport  was  that  campaign  hats  and  campaign 
hats  only  should  be  worn  on  the  voyage  across.  I  was 
just  whipsawed. 

I  was  always  being  reminded  of  my  clothes,  indi- 
rectly and  informally,  but  traceable  back  through 


PERSHING  259 

military  channels  to  General  Pershing.  Of  course,  he 
never  knew  anything  about  or  heard  of  the  service 
coat  or  tunic  that  I  got  in  Paris,  but  he  had  so  impreg- 
nated and  impressed  those  who  had  been  in  contact 
with  him  that  he  didn't  have  to  see  it  to  have  the  news 
reach  me  as  to  what  he  would  have  thought  about  it 
and  said  about  it  if  he  had  seen  it.  Through  some  mis- 
adventure or  lack-wittedness  on  the  part  of  the  French 
tailor  the  buttons  were  sewn  on  upside  down.  The 
eagles  with  outspread  wings  were  standing  on  their 
heads.  I  thought  I  would  never  hear  the  end  of  it.  For 
the  sake  of  the  record  I  wish  I  had  kept  an  actual  count 
of  the  number  of  times  I  was  accosted:  "Better  not 
let  the  Old  Man  see  those  buttons,"  or,  "Say,  you  are 
taking  a  big  chance  if  the  General  ever  lays  his  eyes  on 
you.  He'll  spot  those  buttons  a  mile  off." 

I  fear  I  very  nearly  spoiled  the  war  for  one  officer 
whom  I  saw  frequently  and  who  became  a  closely 
attached  subordinate  of  General  Pershing,  for  I  dug 
in  on  the  button  line  and  never  did  have  them  reversed. 
But  I  was  not  foolhardy.  I  had  been  impressed.  I 
didn't  throw  myself  in  the  way  of  General  Pershing.  I 
had  two  narrow  squeaks  but  got  away  unscathed.  The 
first  was  at  Mollien-au-Bois  when  the  Thirty-Third 
Division  lay  there.  General  Pershing  came  up  one  day 
to  distribute  some  decorations.  An  alert  M.P.  warned 
me  of  his  presence  and  I  lay  below  the  horizon  until  he 
left.  I  was  not  alone,  either.  The  second  time  was 
when  I  ran  into  Ligny  and  found  First  Army  Head- 


260  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

quarters  and  General  Pershing  there.  I  walked  straight 
into  the  lion's  den,  all  unknowing.  One  of  the  aides 
said,  "Captain,  your  buttons  are  Upside  down,"  but  I 
was  used  to  that  and  flitted  before  harm  could  befall 
me* 

There  Were  other  indications  and  signs,  too,  that 
percolated  through  the  army  of  the  interest  in  dress 
that  was  felt  by  the  high  command.  They  came 
through  to  us  as  matters  which  General  Pershing  set 
store  by.  There  was  a  ban  on  cord  breeches  lighter  in 
color  than  the  khaki  tunic,  until  it  was  discovered  that 
the  General  had  adopted  this  English  fashion.  To  wear 
a  service  coat  or  tunic  with  a  slit,  or  as  the  tailors  call 
it,  a  vent,  in  the  back  was  almost  as  heinous  an  offense 
as  giving  information  to  the  enemy,  until  again  Gen- 
eral Pershing  was  converted  to  it.  I  think  it  never 
became  regulation. 

And  as  for  the  man  who  sought  to  have  bellows 
pockets  on  his  jacket,  he  had  swapped  his  nationality 
for  a  mess  of  pottage.  I  could  go  on  and  cite  other 
instances  of  this  interest  in  the  niceties  of  dress  that  so 
impressed  me  as  one  of  General  Pershing's  major  con- 
cerns. Take,  for  example,  the  complex  case  of  the 
boot,  the  puttee  and  the  leggin  and  their  relationship 
to  the  spur.  Much  might  be  said  about  that,  but  I 
refrain.  A  japery  ran  about  for  a  time:  "Why  do 
aviators  wear  spurs  ?  "  The  answer  was :  "  So  that  they 
will  not  be  mistaken  for  cavalrymen." 

Now  I  have  to  cite  by  way  of  confirmation  of  the 


PERSHING  261 

General's  interests,  first,  the  pictorial  record  of  his 
sartorial  rise  and  progress  through  the  war.  Even  if 
he  did  not  altogether  succeed  in  making  the  body  of 
officers  of  the  army  a  daily  hint  from  Paris  to  the  Allies 
and  the  cruel  foe,  he  at  least  succeeded  in  reaching  new 
high  altitude  levels  in  his  own  attire.  I  submit  that  he 
was  the  best-dressed  man  on  our  side  that  the  war 
produced.  The  change  and  the  progress  are  indicated 
by  the  two  portraits  that  precede  this  chapter.  One 
of  them  was  taken  before  the  General  went  to  France, 
the  other  after  his  enlightening  experience  abroad. 

I  now  summon  as  a  witness  Brigadier-General 
Charles  G.  Dawes,  Pershing's  great  friend  and  admirer, 
whose  experience  was  my  experience.  He  confirms  my 
impression.  He  did  not  discover  General  Pershing's 
zeal  for  the  niceties  of  dress  by  indirection  and  hear- 
say as  I  did,  but  directly  and  at  first  hand.  He  wrote 
in  his  diary  that  General  Pershing's  mind  "is  certainly 
open  to  details,  no  matter  how  impressive  the  sur- 
roundings," and  tells  this  story: 

"After  he  [Pershing]  had  finished  his  conference  with 
General  Foch,  he  was  standing  across  the  road  from  me 
and  some  Frenchmen,  with  General  Harbord,  waiting 
for  Foch  to  take  his  automobile  for  his  trip  to  Abbe- 
ville to  see  Haig.  I  saw  him  looking  at  me,  notwith- 
standing the  sound  of  the  cannon,  and  the  general 
surroundings,  with  the  look  of  mingled  friendliness, 
admonition,  and  concern  which  characterizes  his  ex- 
pression during  some  of  my  interviews  with  his  better- 


262  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

disciplined  military  associates.  It  led  me  to  make  a 
hasty  self-appraisement  of  my  attitude,  in  which,  how- 
ever, I  could  surmise  no  fault.  He  spoke  to  Harbord 
and  the  latter  walked  across  the  road  to  me.  As  Har- 
bord carefully  buttoned  up  my  overcoat,  which  was 
opened,  including  the  hooks  at  the  top,  he  murmured 
in  my  ear,  'This  is  a  hell  of  a  job  for  a  Chief-of -Staff  — 
but  the  General  told  me  to  do  it."1 

I  am  indebted  to  General  Dawes  for  so  amply  con- 
firming my  impression  and  for  setting  down  the 
incident  in  his  book,  "A  Journal  of  the  Great  War." 
It  was  just  the  touch  I  needed  to  give  me  complete 
confidence  in  the  validity  of  my  own  vivid  impression. 

By  way  of  further  confirmation,  there  are  the  orders 
signed  John  J.  Pershing,  General  of  the  Armies,  that 
began  to  issue  from  the  War  Department  as  soon  as 
the  General  became  Chief-of-Staff.  The  bestowal  of 
the  Sam  Browne  belt  was  one.  Another  permitted  the 
use  of  tabards  attached  to  the  bugles  or  trumpets  of 
company  buglers.  A  tabard  is  a  rectangular  banner  of 
silk  or  cloth  hanging  from  the  crook  of  a  bugle  or  trum- 
pet and  its  design  follows  that  of  the  coat  of  arms  or 
badge  of  the  organization  as  approved  for  use  on  the 
organization  colors  or  standard.  The  buglers  at  Gen- 
eral Pershing's  headquarters  in  France  were  permitted 
tabards.  They  were  a  novelty  and  decorative  to  a 
degree.  Now  they  are  regulation.  Another  statement 
from  the  War  Department  announced  that  the  present 
high,  stiff  collar  of  the  uniform  coat  would  not  be 


PERSHING  263 

abandoned  in  favor  of  the  open-throat  roll  collar  such 
as  the  English  wear.  Other  orders  related  to  the  wear- 
ing of  white  uniforms,  badges,  and  decorations. 

I  have  confined  myself  perforce  to  polishing  and 
presenting  this  one  facet  of  our  hero's  personality 
because  it  was  the  one  bright  impression  of  him  that  I 
brought  away  from  France  with  me.  Of  his  qualities 
as  a  strategist,  a  tactician,  an  administrator,  I  have 
no  material  for  judgment.  Certainly  in  France  and 
since  he  came  home  he  has  kept  his  head,  he  has  not 
been  indiscreet  in  any  small  particular.  He  has  not 
talked.  He  has  not  gone  out  of  his  way  to  seek  popular 
applause.  He  has  not  tried  to  make  occasion  for  ova- 
tions. He  has  spoken  only  when  called  upon  to  speak, 
and  when  he  has  said  anything  he  has  confined  him- 
self to  the  business  in  hand.  The  armies  in  France  did 
not  idolize  or  idealize  him.  They  did  not  bring  him 
home  as  a  great  popular  hero.  They  did  not  want  him 
as  a  candidate  for  President. 

But  this  attitude  of  indifference  was  not  confined  to 
General  Pershing ;  it  extended  to  all  the  other  com- 
manding generals  of  our  forces  in  France.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  men  who  went  over  were  glad  enough  to  be 
through  with  military  ways  and  professional  military 
men  when  the  end  came.  I  think  they  gave  General 
Pershing  full  credit  for  everything  he  did  in  France.  I 
think  the  common  feeling  among  them  was  and  is 
that  he  did  his  part  as  well  as  he  knew  how,  and  they 
did  theirs  in  the  same  fashion.  Nobody  was  inclined 
to  take  the  matter  any  further.  So  here  it  rests, 


TAFT:  IN  PORT  AT  LAST, 

AT  last  Mr.  Taft  has  come  to  his  journey's  end.  He 
has  been  a  long  time  on  the  way.  Ever  since  I  have 
known  him,  and  that  is  since  1905,  he  has  been  the 
"logical  candidate  for  the  next  vacancy  on  the  Su- 
preme Bench."  Now  we  can  hope  to  see  his  most  fa- 
mous possession,  his  judicial  temperament,  functioning. 
It  has  been  long  maturing  and  preparing  for  the  test. 
But  I  want  Mr.  Taft  to  have  his  full  due  and  credit. 

It  is  now  widely  and  commonly  said  that  he  is  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  That  is  inaccurate. 
There  is  no  such  place,  post,  or  employment  under  our 
form  of  government.  Mr.  Taft  is  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States.  His  colleagues  are  Associate  Justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  There  are 
two  great  offices  at  the  top  of  the  heap  as  we  have 
organized  society  on  this  continent :  President  of  the 
United  States  and  head  of  the  executive  branch  ;  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  and  head  of  the  judicial 
branch.  Mr.  Taft  is  the  first  man  in  our  history  to  have 
been  elected  to  the  one  and  appointed  to  the  other. 

His  being  President  was  an  unhappy  adventure.  He 
approached  it  reluctantly ;  he  never  was  at  ease  when 
he  was  in  the  White  House,  and  he  never  got  any  fun 
or  satisfaction  out  of  the  job.  Only  Vermont  and  Utah 
(or  was  it  Nevada  ?)  wanted  him  to  have  a  second  term. 

Ilis  coming  to  be  President  at  all  was  as  odd  a  thing 


THE  CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


TAFT  265 

as  ever  happened  within  my  knowledge  of  politics.  It 
was  known  to  all  the  world,  toward  the  end  of  1907, 
that  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  award  the  Republican  nom- 
ination for  the  presidency  in  1908.  There  was  to  be  no 
contest  about  it.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  to  give  it  to  the 
one  he  loved  best.  He  made  up  his  mind  slowly  be- 
cause he  wanted  a  winner.  When  he  first  talked  with 
me  about  his  problem,  he  had  narrowed  his  choice 
down  to  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  Root.  He  weighed  and  bal- 
anced those  two,  one  against  the  other.  He  talked  with 
a  good  many  people  first  and  last  who  might  have  a 
slant  on  public  opinion.  Mr.  Root  was  sent  to  South 
America  to  "get  a  reputation,"  as  the  saying  is.  When 
he  got  back  home  he  went  out  to  Kansas  City  and 
made  a  speech  to  the  Knife  and  Fork  Club.  That  had 
been  arranged,  too.  But  the  Middle  West  didn't  rise. 
Nobody  rose.  Mr.  Roosevelt  began  to  turn  more 
toward  Mr.  Taft,  and  to  complain  that  Mr.  Root  "had 
no  sense  of  a  public." 

During  those  days  Mr.  Taft  knew,  of  course,  what 
was  going  on,  and  he  used  to  tell  his  confidants  that  he 
would  never  become  a  candidate  for  the  nomination ; 
that  he  had  no  aspirations  to  become  President ;  that 
his  whole  ambition  and  desire  would  be  completely 
satisfied  if  he  could  be  on  the  Supreme  Court.  He 
wanted  that  and  nothing  else.  A  place  on  the  highest 
bench  was  the  summit  of  every  lawyer's  desire,  he  was 
a  lawyer  and  nothing  else,  and  eager  only  for  prefer- 
ment on  the  judicial  side.  But  in  the  end  he  was  over- 


266  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

borne,  and  capitulated  as  was  too  often  the  case  later 
when  urgent  pressure  was  applied. 

He  did  not  make  an  eager  candidate  after  he  was 
nominated.  He  didn't  like  campaigning  for  votes.  He 
didn't  like  standing  up  and  telling  the  people  what  a 
wonder  he  was,  and  how  they  would  all  be  prosperous 
and  happy  and  have  good  crops  and  good  business  if 
they  made  him  President.  He  didn't  believe  it  himself. 
He  didn't  like  any  of  the  campaign  hokum.  It  all  bored 
him  to  extinction.  He  was  blue  and  depressed  about 
his  prospects  throughout  the  canvass. 

I  joined  him  at  Cincinnati  when  he  began  his  first 
speech-making  trip.  It  was  very  hot.  Mr.  Taft  had  a 
special  train.  His  first  speech  was  to  be  made  at  George 
Ade's  farm  near  Brook,  Indiana. 

In  those  days  the  candidate  had  a  girth  and  con- 
formation that  required  freshly  pressed  trousers  every 
day,  especially  in  the  hot  weather,  so  he  had  a  Filipino 
valet.  But  some  of  the  shrewd  boys  decided  that  Felipe 
should  not  be  taken  on  the  journey  through  the  corn 
belt.  The  honest  yeomanry  of  those  parts  might  take 
it  amiss.  The  little  brown  brother  sneaked  aboard  the 
train,  however,  and  had  to  be  shoved  off  when  he  was 
discovered  after  an  hour  or  so.  Freed  of  its  incriminat- 
ing freight,  the  train  went  on  to  Brook.  There  fol- 
lowed a  dusty  ride  out  to  the  farm,  where  all  the  people 
from  far  and  near  had  gathered,  a  fine  lot  of  men  and 
women,  just  about  the  best  and  soundest  we  produce. 

Outdoors  on  a  rough  platform  under  the  trees  Mr. 


TAFT  267 

Taft  fired  his  opening  gun  of  the  campaign.  At  this 
late  day  no  harm  can  come  of  saying  that  it  was  a 
"dud."  The  shell  did  not  explode.  Mr.  Taft  read  to 
them  from  a  typewritten  manuscript  his  views  on  the 
Philippines,  and  an  adequate  coast  defense  system.  It 
was  something  dire.  The  temperature  went  down, 
down,  down.  The  Indiana  politicians  who  were  run- 
ning the  show  were  making  the  S.O.S.  signal.  They 
rushed  up  their  reserves.  Jim  Watson  was  called  on  to 
save  the  day.  He  done  noble.  He  had  nothing  to  say 
and  he  said  it  grandly.  He  ran  his  fingers  through  his 
hyacinthine  locks,  pulled  out  the  vox  humana  stop,  and 
gave  them  the  grand  old  dope,  the  grand  old  party,  the 
grand  old  flag  —  the  heart-warming  stuff  they  had 
come  to  hear. 

The  whole  performance  was  symbolical,  was  it  not, 
in  a  way,  of  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Taft  Admin- 
istration ?  He  was  always  getting  in  holes  and  having 
to  be  pulled  out.  At  Brook  that  day,  the  cognoscenti 
there  assembled  came  to  the  conclusion,  later  amply 
verified,  that  Mr.  Taft  was  no  politician. 

Mr.  Taft  was  never  detachedly  appraised  until  he 
became  President.  While  he  was  in  the  Philippines  and 
in  the  War  Department,  he  was  in  the  shadow  of  other 
men.  He  was  an  agent,  not  a  principal.  Everybody 
liked  him.  He  soon  became  known  as  one  of  the  honest- 
est  men  that  ever  stepped  foot  in  Washington,  and  as 
lacking  in  all  craft  and  guile  as  a  child.  He  was  too 
frank  and  naive  for  his  own  good.  He  believed  —  oh, 


268  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

so  simply  —  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  friendship 
in  politics.  And  no  obligation  rests  more  heavily  on 
Mr.  Taft's  shoulders  than  the  obligations  of  friend- 
ship. 

When  he  came  to  the  White  House  there  was  not  a 
more  popular  man  in  public  life  in  the  United  States. 
He  hadn't  a  single  political  enemy.  Democrats  vied 
with  Republicans  in  expressing  their  good- will.  It 
didn't  last  long  —  just  through  the  Payne- Aldrich 
Tariff  session  and  the  Winona  speech.  After  that 
everything  seemed  to  go  wrong.  Mr.  Taft  couldn't 
please  anybody.  He  tried  so  hard  to  please  everybody. 

I  recall  two  criticisms  of  that  period,  so  obviously 
intended  to  be  fair  and  so  accurately  describing  Mr. 
Taft's  character  and  characteristics  in  the  White 
House  as  to  have  stood  the  test  of  time.  First :  "Mr. 
Taft  has  tried  to  be  everybody's  friend,  and  as  usual 
in  such  cases  he  has  not  succeeded  in  fully  pleasing 
anybody.  The  public  knows  that  he  is  honest  and  sin- 
cere and  patriotic,  but  it  is  not  sure  that  he  measures 
up  to  the  full  requirements  of  his  office.  It  would  like  a 
little  more  independence,  a  little  less  partisanship,  a 
little  more  reliance  upon  his  own  common  sense,  a  little 
more  courage,  a  little  less  veneration  for  the  elder 
statesmen  of  the  Republican  Party,  and  a  little  less 
organization  politics." 

And  this :  "The  peculiar  weakness  of  Mr.  Taft  as  a 
directing  force,  the  peculiar  deficiency  he  has  exhibited 
in  respect  of  political  sagacity,  has  never  been  more 


TAFT  269 

conspicuous  than  in  this  complacent  view  of  his  own 
defeat.  After  staking  his  prestige  on  a  particular  issue, 
after  identifying  himself  with  a  legislative  programme 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that  he  regarded  its 
adoption  as  indispensable  to  the  success  of  his  admin- 
istration, he  seems  ready  to  accept  defeat  as  a  thing 
for  which  he  cannot  justly  be  held  in  any  way  account- 
able. .  . .  He  has  shown  a  certain  mechanicalness,  a  cer- 
tain want  of  that  vital  touch  without  which  a  powerful 
hold  on  public  affairs  is  impossible. . . .  A  large  part  of 
the  influence  that  a  President  can  wield,  through  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion,  comes  from  the  fact  that  the 
nation  listens  to  him  as  it  listens  to  no  one  else.  But 
the  retention  of  this  position  of  advantage,  the  con- 
tinued possession  of  this  great  leverage  bestowed  upon 
him  by  his  office,  is  dependent  upon  his  husbanding  of 
his  resources.  If  he  is  ready  to  speak  every  day  in  the 
week  and  to  point  out  his  thoughts  or  feelings  just  as 
they  happen  to  come,  he  will  soon  find  his  audience 
wanting.  A  want  of  perspective,  a  lack  of  the  feeling 
that  some  things  must  be  done  and  that  others  are  best 
left  alone,  has  been  no  small  part  of  the  cause  of  Mr. 
Taft's  troubles." 

I  have  chosen  to  revive  here  these  two  acute  com- 
ments because  they  fairly  represent  the  intelligent 
criticism  to  which  Mr.  Taft  was  subjected.  He  has 
none  of  the  salient  traits  that  mark  out  and  distinguish 
natural  leaders  of  men  in  the  field  of  politics.  He  came 
into  office  on  the  strength  of  the  political  prestige  and 


270  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

authority  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  he  received  a 
larger  vote  than  was  ever  cast  prior  to  that  time  for 
any  other  President  of  the  United  States. 

He  did  the  best  he  could.  God  help  him,  he  could  do 
no  more.  He  went  into  it  to  oblige  a  friend.  He  had 
no  other  desire  than  the  best  interests  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  out  of  his  element.  He  had  no  political 
sagacity  to  begin  with,  and  he  never  acquired  any.  He 
could  never  accommodate  himself  to  leadership,  and 
the  President  must  be  a  leader.  Mr.  Taft  used  to  call 
himself  "titular  leader"  of  his  party. 

But  I  think  the  new  Chief  Justice  will  be  happy  in 
the  Supreme  Court.  He  will  not  have  to  consider  poli- 
tics, or  expediency,  or  the  claims  of  personal  friend- 
ship, or  be  subjected  to  powerful  and  urgent  pressure 
from  any  quarter.  These  have  always  proved  his 
stumbling-block  and  the  cause  of  his  undoing.  Hereto- 
fore through  his  career  since  1900  he  has  been  doing 
what  other  people  wanted  him  to  do,  a  draft  man,  first 
in  the  Philippines,  then  Secretary  of  War,  then  the 
presidency.  All  the  time  his  heart  and  his  inclination 
were  turned  toward  the  bench.  Where  the  heart  is 
there  also  the  treasure  lies.  A  true  saying. 

Now,  at  last,  Mr.  Taft  has  got  his  chance  to  follow 
on  where  his  heart  has  been  calling.  He  has  come  to 
hold  the  high  place  in  the  most  peaceful  haven  that 
this  troubled  world  affords.  Having  once  reached  it, 
the  traveler  lives  in  a  serene,  untroubled  air.  He  is  as 
immune  from  criticism  as  from  punishment  for  his 


TAFT  271 

actions.  He  is  beyond  the  reach  of  all  mankind  ;  sub- 
ject only  to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience.  There  he  may  dwell  until  gathered  to  his 
fathers,  for  though  after  a  certain  specified  period  he,  if 
he  so  desires,  may  retire  on  full  pay,  there  is  no  manda- 
tory requirement  that  he  shall  ever  give  over  the  work 
John  Marshall  began. 

The  life  of  a  Justice  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  as  Mr.  Taft  well  knows, 
comes  as  near  being  an  ideal  way  to  spend  one's  al- 
lotted span  of  years  on  this  sphere  as  is  permitted  in 
this  sadly  ordered  world.  If  he  be  properly  selected, 
the  Justice  loves  his  work.  What  he  has  to  do  affords 
him  the  chief  pleasure  of  his  days.  He  has  the  con- 
sciousness that  it  is  important  work  ;  that  his  decisions 
will  affect  for  good  or  ill  not  only  men  now  living,  but, 
in  many  instances,  the  unborn  sons  of  men.  Inherent 
in  a  seat  on  the  bench  are  great  powers  and  grave 
responsibilities,  which  may  be  exercised  in  absolute 
detachment  from  all  worldly  interests  and  without  fear, 
favor,  or  hope  of  reward.  The  Justice  is  far  removed 
from  daily  temptation,  from  importunities  and  plead- 
ings, from  the  demands  and  exactions  of  friendships, 
and  from  all  the  little  intimate  things  that  swerve  the 
cold  processes  of  reason  in  the  forming  of  the  average 
man's  judgments. 

The  haven  into  which  Mr.  Taft  has  come  is  the  only 
institution  of  our  government  with  which  long  and 
close  contact  and  acquaintance  do  not  breed  famili- 


272  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

arity  or  an  easy  contempt.  Persons  much  about  the 
Capitol  at  Washington  come  quickly,  too  quickly  in 
most  instances,  to  view  the  daily  life  and  processes  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  Senate  with  a 
full  and  keen  appreciation  of  their  defects  and  weak- 
nesses. Living  here  without  a  proper  perspective,  the 
tendency  is  to  exaggerate  the  little  bits  of  cowardice, 
the  indirect  purposes  and  motives,  and  not  to  see  and 
remember  that  at  the  core  both  branches  of  the 
national  legislature  are  essentially  sound. 

One  even  comes  in  time  to  view  the  presidency  with- 
out illusions.  Behind  all  the  hurrah  and  the  clamor  is  a 
greatly  overworked  human  being  like  ourselves  sub- 
ject to  the  temptations  and  perils  and  trials  that  beset 
all  of  us,  whether  we  be  eighteen-dollar-a-week  book- 
keepers in  grain  and  feed  stores  or  directors  of  great 
enterprises  involving  millions  of  capital. 

When  Mr.  Taft  became  Chief  Justice,  he  discovered 
that  he  had  inherited  a  "body  servant."  The  office 
seems  to  be  hereditary,  for  some  of  the  men  now  serv- 
ing were  preceded  by  their  fathers.  They  are  all 
negroes,  of  course,  and  they  know  the  forms  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  court  to  the  last  fine  point.  Under  the 
guise  of  serving,  they  rule  the  private  life  of  the  Jus- 
tices with  the  iron  authority  and  discipline  that  per- 
sons in  the  South  have  long  been  familiar  with  in  old 
family  servitors.  Mr.  Justice  Woods,  who  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  bench  by  President  Garfield,  is  reported 
to  have  said  soon  after  he  took  his  place  on  the  court : 


TAFT  273 

"My  body-servant  is  the  most  annoying  thing  I 
have  experienced.  The  fellow  is  the  first  man  I  see  in 
tht  morning  and  the  last  man  I  see  at  night.  He  forces 
his  way  into  my  bedroom  in  the  morning  and  orders 
me  down  to  breakfast,  taking  my  order  himself  to  the 
cook.  I  cannot  get  rid  of  him  in  any  way.  He  haunts 
me  all  the  time.  I  try  to  think  of  places  to  send  him, 
but  he  is  back  again  as  quick  as  lightning.  That  fellow 
will  be  the  death  of  me." 

One  of  the  stock  and  prized  anecdotes  about  the 
court  relates  to  a  young  lawyer  who  was  very  earnestly 
pleading  to  establish  a  point  before  the  court.  While 
he  was  still  in  the  full  course  of  his  appeal,  one  of  the 
Justices  leaned  over  the  bench  and  interjected  crisply  : 

"But  that  is  not  the  law." 

The  young  lawyer  was  abashed,  but  only  for  a  mo- 
ment before  he  retorted,  "It  was  the  law  until  the 
court  spoke."  The  sum  of  our  attitude  toward  the 
court  has  never  been  better  exemplified. 

Mr.  Taft,  as  President,  himself  illustrated  this  atti- 
tude. In  a  special  message  on  the  interstate  commerce 
and  anti-trust  laws,  communicated  to  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  on  January  7,  1910,  Mr.  Taft  said  among 
other  things:  "Now  the  public,  and  especially  the 
business  public,  are  to  rid  themselves  of  the  idea  that 
such  a  distinction  (as  between  'good  trusts'  and  'bad 
trusts'  or  as  between  '  reasonable'  restraint  of  trade 
and  'unreasonable'  restraint  of  trade)  is  practicable 
or  can  be  introduced  into  the  statute.  Certainly, 


274  WASHINGTON  CLOSE-UPS 

under  the  present  anti-trust  law  no  such  distinction 
exists.  ..." 

The  Supreme  Court,  as  is  well  known,  took  an  op- 
posing view  in  the  Standard  Oil  opinion.  A  group  of 
persons  so  large  as  to  be  called  fairly  a  throng  went  to 
the  White  House  on  the  day  following  the  court's 
decision,  and  sought  audience  with  President  Taft. 
Each  of  them  had  equipped  himself  with  a  copy  of  the 
message  containing  this  paragraph.  They  all  wanted 
some  comment  from  Mr.  Taft.  Let  me  quote  the  cur- 
rent accounts  in  the  newspapers,  which  I  know  to  be 
trustworthy : 

"When  it  was  called  to  the  President's  attention 
that  in  his  message  to  Congress  of  January  7,  1910,  he 
expressed  doubt  of  the  practicability  of  defining  '  good ' 
and  '  bad '  trusts,  he  said  that  whatever  had  been  his 
opinions,  he  abandoned  them  when  the  Supreme  Court 
spoke. 

"The  President  would  not  discuss  the  decision  at  all. 
He  directed  the  attention  of  some  of  his  callers  to  the 
fact  that,  before  a  decision  is  handed  down  by  the 
Supreme  Court,  every  one  is  entitled  to  have  his 
personal  view  of  the  matter,  but  that  after  the  decision 
has  been  rendered  it  is  the  law  of  the  land,  and  every 
law-abiding  citizen  is  bound  to  bow  to  it." 

Mr.  Taft  has  a  great  respect  for  law,  authority,  and 
orderly  processes,  and  I  am  sure  he  will  find  it  grateful 
and  refreshing  to  be  in  an  atmosphere  and  environ- 
ment where  he  can  function  in  a  vacuum  free  from 


TAFT  275 

pressure,  free  from  naggings,  and  reach  conclusions 
and  decisions  that  nobody  can  or  will  question.  It  is 
the  ideal  condition  he  has  long  sought.  If  he  doesn't 
make  secure  and  lasting  his  own  reputation,  it  will  be 
his  own  fault. 


THE  END 


ftfte  fttoetfibe 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
V  .   S   .   A 


College 
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